A terrific prelude to the attack was made by the German artillery, which
concentrated a furious shrapnel fire upon the French position. At this
point the trenches of the Germans were only seventy yards from the
French, and for fear of hitting their own men the German guns were aimed
fairly high, so that the Frenchmen in the rear trenches suffered most
heavily. Those in the front trench huddled against its sides while the
storm of shot and shell raged over them. There was nothing else for them
to do at the moment, and, as it proved, it was extremely fortunate for
the Allies that the German guns spared these men.
The French seventy-fives raked the German batteries in answer, and
things were going hot and strong when the German infantrymen suddenly
became active. From their trenches seventy yards away a shower of hand
grenades came bowling over toward the first French trench. Many of them
fell short, and few did any damage; but hardly had this second plague
come to an end when out from the trenches climbed a swarm of Germans
rushing furiously toward the Frenchmen. At last the men in that first
trench had something to do. They jumped to their loopholes and blazed
magazine fire into this raging, tearing attack. Every bullet seemed to
find its mark; it could hardly have done otherwise at such a range.
The advance line wavered, stumbled over prostrate parts of itself, and
then swept onward again.
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