Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1917 — BASQUE PITCHING RETIRES GERMANS [ARTICLE]

BASQUE PITCHING RETIRES GERMANS

Expert ?Pelota”. Players Strike Out Teuton Regiments With Hand Grenades. ENEMY GUNNERS ARE BAFFLED Pyrenees Troops Hold Craonne Key Position Despite Desperate Attacks—German Artillery Fires ' Almost at Random. French Front. —Grenades thrown with wonderful precision by devotees of “pelota,” the national game of Cuba, of Spain and of the Basque .country in the southwest of France, have done much toward defeating the almost incessant counter-attacks by the Germans on the plateau of Californle, overshadowing Craonne, and on the Casemates plateau, further west along the Chemln des Dames, which are joined by a narrow crest. These men, whose homes are in the Pyrenees, have fought gallantly since the outbreak of hostilities. It was they who took Craonne, the key position of the eastern end of the Chemln des Dames, and it was they who were In possession of the town and its vicinity when the Germans made their repeated efforts to reconquer the ground, to which their commanders attach so much importance. The latest vain German effort was made on June 3, when General von Bohm with two fresh divisions of Rhenish troops, the Fifteenth and the Forty-first, who had just been hurried back from the Roumanian front/ as ‘ sa’ulted the Californie amj the-TJase-mates plateau with a suddenness and fury such as has rarely been noted oa the part of the Germans. Snug In Their Shell Holes. The attack opened with a most intense artillery bombardment, under which, however, the Basques sat tight in their trenches improvised out of shell holes. When the awful "hurricane of shells ceased-the* occupants of the trenches saw advancing toward them wave after wave of German Infantry, who crossed the torn up ground elbow to elbow, their numbers far in excess of those of the French defenders... Not a sign, however, was given by the Basques of yielding ground until the German ranks opened and brought to view men equipped with implements throwing liquid flames. Then and only then the Basques fell back' at those portions of thelV lines which were sprinkled with blazing retirement was but a temporary one. The French soon organized a counterattack with grenades and bayonets. The hand, grenades were thrown by them with such precision owing to their lifelong practice at their favorite game that they forced the Germans out again rapidly and in the fury of their onrush even advanced beyond their original lines. On the right of this Basque line the famous chasseurs had an equally se-

vere fight with the attacking Germans, who were eventually thrown back, after suffering great losses. ' German Gunners Baffled. Not an inch of the ground gained by the French In the first movement of the offensive has been lost. The German artillery is compelled to fire almost at random, since the French possess all the most valuable observatories, whence they can watch the movements of their enemies in the valley of the Allette down below and on the crest at the other side, which before the French offensive was the third German position. Information gathered from the prisoners shows that the .German high command cannot reconcile itself to the loss of Craonne and the Chemln des Dames, and the officers of the fighting units have been ordered repeatedly to retake them at any cost.