_Paris, June 22.--A terrific combat from May 30 to June 19 has
resulted in the conquest by the French of the formidable system of
works and trenches called the "Labyrinth." The operations are
described today in a dispatch from an official observer at the front._
_The Labyrinth, lying between Neuville-St. Vaast and Ecurie, formed a
salient of the German line, and its position, a strong one, had been
greatly reinforced from time to time. The "Observer" writes:_
French attacks on May 9 and days thereafter failed to modify the
situation. At the end of May the French decided to finish things, and
the order was given to take the Labyrinth inch by inch.
This meant an operation of two principal phases of different nature.
It was necessary, first, by well-prepared and vigorous assaults, to
get a footing in the enemy organization, and then to progress to the
interior of the communicating trenches, repulsing the enemy step by
step. These two operations lasted more than three weeks and resulted
in complete success.
The debouch must have been difficult, as numerous German batteries,
composed of 77-millimeter guns, the 150, 210, 280, and even 305
millimeter guns, concentrated their fire on us. They were stationed at
Givenchy, La Folie, Thelus, Farbus, and Beaurains, south of Arras.
Nevertheless, our men understood, and prepared to do their duty.
It was on May 30 that the assaults began, our regiments marching out
from different points. Their ardor was admirable.
Everywhere, except on the right, we captured the first line. Behind
this were a great number of barricades and fortlets. We took some of
these, while others stopped us. One hundred and fifty prisoners,
surprised in their holes by the furious charge of the French infantry,
fell into our hands.
From this moment the war of the communicating trenches began. There
were the trenches of von Kluck, Eulenburg, and the Salle des Fêtes,
without counting innumerable numbered works, giving a feeling of
unheard-of difficulties which our troops had to overcome.
Without a stop, from May 30 to June 17, they fought on this ground,
full of big holes and filled with dead. The combat never ceased,
either day or night. The attacking elements, constantly renewed,
crushed the Germans with hand grenades and demolished their earth
barricades. There was not an hour of truce nor an instant of repose.
The men were under a sun so hot in the trenches that they fought
bareheaded and in their shirtsleeves.
[Illustration: "The Labyrinth"]
On each of these bloody days there were acts of incomparable heroism.
From three sides at a time we made way where the Germans had dug
formidable shelters, ten meters under ground. The enemy artillery
continued firing on our line without interruption.
Our reserves suffered, for in this upturned earth, where every blow
from the pickaxe would disinter a body, one can prepare but slowly the
deep shelters which the situation demands.
We lost many men, but the morale of the others was unshaken. The men
asked only one thing--to go forward to fight with grenades, instead of
waiting, gun in hand, the unceasing fall of shells.
They were hard days, and it was necessary constantly to carry to the
fighting men munitions and food, and especially water. Everybody did
his best, and we continued our success. Little by little our progress,
indicated by a cloud of dust, resulting from the combat of the
grenades, brought us to an extremity north of the Labyrinth. The
fighting continued in the Eulenburg and other trenches daily, and
ultimately the Labyrinth belonged to us.
The Germans lost an entire regiment. We took a thousand prisoners. The
rest were killed. A Bavarian regiment also was cut to pieces.
Our losses were 2,000 men, among whom many were slightly wounded.
The resistance was as fierce as the attack. Despite the nature of the
ground and the organized defenses, which had been in preparation for
seven months, and despite the artillery, the bomb-throwers, and the
quick-firers, we remained the victors.