"September 25.
"I have received no news, and probably shall not receive any for some days. The whole postal service has been stopped; all places have been bombarded to such an extent that no human being could stand against it. The railway line is so seriously damaged that the train service for some time has been completely stopped. We have been for three days in the first line; during those three days the French have fired so heavily that our trenches are no longer visible."
"September 25.
"We have passed through some terrible hours. It was as though the whole world were in a state of collapse. We have had heavy losses. One company of 250 men had sixty killed last night. A neighboring battery had sixteen killed yesterday. The following instance will show you the frightful destructiveness of the French shells: A dugout five meters deep, surrounded by two meters fifty centimeters of earth and two thicknesses of heavy timber, was broken like a match."
Report made on September 24, 1915, in the morning, by the captain commanding the Third Company of the 135th Regiment of Reserves:
"The French are firing on us with great bombs and machine guns. We must have reenforcements at once. Many men are no longer fit for anything. It is not that they are wounded, but they are Landsturmers. Moreover the wastage is greater than the losses announced. Send rations immediately; no food has reached us to-day. Urgently want illuminating cartridges and hand grenades. Is the hospital corps never coming to fetch the wounded? I urgently beg for reenforcements; the men are dying from fatigue and want of sleep. I have no news of the battalion."
The time fixed for all the attacks on the Champagne front was 9.15 a. m., September 25, 1915. Just before the assault General Joffre issued the following brief order:
"The offensive will be carried on without truce and without respite.
"Remember the Marne—Victory or death."
Punctual to the moment the troops climbed out of their trenches with the aid of steps or scaling ladders and drew up in line before making a rush at the German trenches. The operation was rapidly effected. The German position was at an average distance of 220 yards; at the word of command the troops broke into a steady trot and covered that ground without any serious loss. The honor of the first assault was granted to the dare-devil Colonial Corps, men hardened in the building up of France's African Empire, and to the Moroccan troops, famous for fierce and obstinate fighting. The men tore across the ground to the assault, led by their commander, General Marchand, of Fashoda fame, who left the army at the age of forty-four but volunteered immediately on the outbreak of the war, and was given command of the Colonial Brigade. General Marchand fell in the charge with a dangerous shell wound in the abdomen. The men dashed on to the German trench line, stirring the rain-drenched, chalky soil to foam beneath their feet. Under the leadership of General Baratier, Marchand's right-hand man in his colonial conquests, the French Colonial Cavalry played an important part in the charge. This was the first time for many months that cavalry really came into action on the western front. They lost heavily, but their activities probably explain the great number of prisoners captured in so short a time.