At 10 o'clock the main body of our troops succeeded in establishing communications with the isolated company which called for help in the provincial dialect. We answered that we would attack at nightfall, but that the attack would be preceded by a heavy bombardment.
Accordingly, they constructed heavy bomb-proof shelters on the four sides of the square and anxiously waited. At 9 o'clock the attack was begun with artillery, quick firers and rifles, but it was insufficient to drive out the Germans, who had in the meanwhile established well-protected trenches and, with an excellent telephone system, made any surprise movement impossible.
The company's rations were now becoming very low. Delirious cries of the wounded added to the discomfiture of the men. The following morning a German patrol tried to take the position by storm, and some of the men succeeded even in mounting the parapet. These were driven off by a quick firer which had been captured from the Germans. On other advancing troops of the enemy huge boulders, dug from the hillside, were rolled down and we succeeded in dispersing the attack.
Another attack was prepared by us for that night, but the danger was great on account of the narrowness of the position occupied by the company. The captain of the company was ordered to light fires at the opposite ends of his position, so that our artillery could better regulate its fire, as there was great danger of killing our own men.
The artillery opened a crushing fire, and the Germans began to retreat. As they passed the company's position their men were mowed down by the exactness of the fire of our troops, and finally the brave company was delivered.
The general in command of the army in the Vosges said, in complimenting the men for their bravery, the company henceforth should be called "Company Sid Ibrahim."
Battle line in the Vosges, July 20
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