The ranges were so great that hitherto the fire from the enceinte was not yet subdued. Battery No. 1, lying isolated in the Park of St. Cloud, suffered most, being fired upon from two bastions of the enceinte, from Point du Jour, and from Mont Valérien. The steep cliff behind the battery facilitated the aim of the enemy. Its parapet was repeatedly shattered, and it was only the most zealous devotion which enabled the struggle to be continued at this point. The enemy also concentrated a heavy fire on batteries Nos. 19 and 21, pushed forward into a position specially threatening to Fort Vanves. The long-range fire from the enceinte dropped from a high angle close behind the parapet, breaking through the platforms, and inflicting serious injuries on a great many gunners. The powder-magazines blew up in two of the batteries, and both the battery commanders and several other superior officers were wounded.
On the east front of Paris, the fifty-eight German guns remaining there after the reduction of Mont Avron were opposed by 151 of the enemy. The former nevertheless soon proved their superiority; the forts only occasionally came into action; the French withdrew their outposts up to the works, and altogether vacated the peninsula of St. Maur. By degrees the heavy siege-guns could be removed from their previous positions to the Morée brook.
The forts on the south front had meanwhile suffered severely. The ruin in Issy was visible to the naked eye; fires broke out there repeatedly, and the powder-magazine had to be cleared out at great risk in the night of January 16th. Fort Vanves had lost seventy men; it opened fire usually every morning, but soon became silent. Montrouge, on the contrary, on some days still fired over 500 rounds from eighteen guns. But here, too, the casemates no longer afforded any shelter, and one of the bastions lay a heap of ruins.
In spite of the steady fire from the enceinte, a part of Paris itself was disturbed by the 15-cm. shells. An elevation of 30 degrees, obtained by a special contrivance, sent the projectiles into the heart of the city. From 300 to 400 shells were fired daily.
Under the pressure of "public opinion" the Government, after repeated deliberations, decided once more on a new enterprise in force, to be directed this time against the German batteries about Châtillon. The collective superior commanders agreed, indeed, that sorties could promise no success without the co-operation of a relieving army from the outside; but, on the 8th, Gambetta had announced the "victory" of the Army of the North at Bapaume, and further had promised that both the Armies of the Loire should advance. Hereupon General Trochu advised that at least the moment should be awaited when the investing army before Paris should be weakened by having to detach anew part of its strength; but he was opposed by the other members of the Government, especially by Monsieur Jules Favre. That gentleman declared that the Maires of Paris were indignant at the bombardment, that the representatives of the city must be allowed some insight into the military situation, and, above all, that negotiations ought long since to have been entered into.
Finally, on January 15th, it was determined that the German lines should be broken through at Montretout, Garches, and Buzanval.
While confusion and dissensions thus prevailed in Paris, the unity of the German nation, under the Emperor William, was solemnly proclaimed at Versailles.
FOOTNOTES:
[78] Previously commanding the XIVth Infantry Division.
[79] Previously commanding the artillery of the Guard Corps, the well-known military author, best known in England as "Prince Kraft." The slight ambiguity in the text may be removed by the more specific statement that General von Kameke was Chief Director of the Engineer attack, Prince Kraft Chief Director of the Artillery attack on Paris as a whole. On the south front Colonel von Rieff commanded the siege artillery, Major-General Schulz was Engineer-in-chief. On the north and east fronts within the Army of the Meuse Colonels Bartsch and Oppermann had the corresponding commands. Colonel von Ramm is nowhere mentioned in the official distribution of the respective staffs.