Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1915 — TAKING OF CARENCY [ARTICLE]

TAKING OF CARENCY

Soldier Describes Horrible Fighting in Storming Ruined City. Town a Regular Fortress, All the .Houses Communicated by Cellars and Underground Passages — Kill With Hand Grenades. Paris—The horrible fighting which resulted in the taking of ruined Carency by the French is described thus by a soldier in a letter received here: “At 10 a. m., with knapsacks and with our pouch bags well stored with grenades and melinite peta'rds, we left our trenches, and along a front of one and a fourth miles rushed the first German trench. We were allowed ten minutes; it took us exactly 17 seconds. All the Boches in the trench were killed or captured. We at once cut the electric wires, for everything was mined. “Away to the second trench, which is carried in the same manner. We took many prisoners and a heap of spoil. The machine guns we at once swung round and so peppered the enemy with their own projectiles. We exploded mines, which made holes 40 yards in diameter and ten yards deep. Numbers of Boches were buried. Others lay on the parapets or in the trenches, horribly cut up—some decapitated, others bayoneted. They had been taken by surprise, and could not make use of their asphyxiating bombs. “In the evening we seized a cemetery. Hot fighting. We lost pretty heavily, for the enemy fought bravely, and made good use of his machine guns. In the night they bombarded us plentifully, but we lay low in their holes, and our losses were very slight. “Monday passed in the attack of other points and the consolidation of our positions and investment of Carency, which is a regular fortress. All the houses communicate by the cellars and underground passages. Everywhere deep, well-defended trenches. Mitrailleuses in the houses and 77 millimeter and one 105 millimeter guns in the big farm. “On Tuesday morning, with a rush, we enter Carency. It has to be taken house by house. No sooner was one taken than the enemy fled into the next. They shot at us through the cellar gratings. We crawled up under the walls and threw down grenades. Heaps of them were killed in the cellars. “At noon the whole of Carency was ours. A lieutenant whom we took prisoner blew out his brains. <‘l entered a lieutenant’s cabin. First of all, on top was a ten-foot layer of earth, covered with green sods. Twelve steps led down to the living room, which was 13 feet by 16 feet, with a glass paneled door and curtains. Enormous tree trunks propped up the whole. “The walls were lined with morocco, probably ‘lifted’ from some case, and the ceiling was linoleum. Gilt laths held everything fast. On the right was a comfortable walnut bed; on the left a square table with a new oilcloth covering; in the middle, a fine lamp on a stand, and in the recess a Prussian stove. Knickknacks, books, valuable odds and ends lay about on shelves. Boxes of cigars, hams, butter, sausage, beer. “The Germans, fighting inch by inch, fell back on Ablain. We were now beyond Carency and across the water. All the Boches hiding there were killed or thrown in. Six prisoners had been taken, and left under the care of a theatrical gentleman. We went on, and the prisoners fell upon him and killed him and then ‘skedaddled.’ ”