Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 154, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1916 — STRANGE BATTLE IN AISNE WOOD [ARTICLE]

STRANGE BATTLE IN AISNE WOOD

Germans Come Out of Shelters After French Pass and Attack Rear. FIND THEMSELVES IN A TRAP Search of Captured Wood Reveals Numerous Hiding Places Where Germans Still Held Out—Marvels of Field Fortifications. Behind the French Front in Champagne.—The French troops that made a big dent in the German line just west of Bjrry-au-Bac and not far from Rheims more than a year ago, and who had chafed under the necessity of marking time there ever since, espegan, were allowed the satisfaction recently of attacking a little wood the Germans still held there between the Aisne and the little town of Ville-au-Bois. This diversion developed an action of considerable importance that did not get into official communique. It has been described in the press by a staff officer.

Wood Strongly Fortified. The wood, strongly fortified by the Germans, made it impossible, so long as the Teutons held it, for the French to rectify and properly to consolidate their front at that point. When the attack upon Yerdun developed great proportions it was decided to prepare this operation, both as a desirable improvement of the French position and as a diversion. What would have been considered an unprecedented concentration of artillery, both heavy guns and field pieces, before the Verdun operations was effected immediately behind the front, while the infantry burrowed deeper and deeper ipto their underground shelters. Orders were given for ttye opening of fire at seven o’clock on the morning of April 25, and the fire increased in rapidity and intensity until four o’clock in the afternoon, the Germans replying feebly until the entire wood was being swept and symptoms of an approaching attack became apparent. Then their heavy pieces from the heights of Craonne began a heavy shelling of the trenches from which an attack might have been Buppoapd to originate. The French infantry, well protected from this shelter in their deepened