Neufchâteau

Had it not been so oppressively hot, we should have been quite content, for we enjoyed several days of rest which braced us up again.

On the twenty-first of August we came in contact with the first German troops belonging to the Fourth Army, about fifteen miles to the east of the Belgian town of Neufchateau.

The battle of Neufchateau, which lasted from the twenty-second to the twenty-fourth of August, had already begun.

The French army here met with the Fourth German Army, and a murderous slaughter began.

As is always the case, it commenced with small skirmishes of advance guards and patrols.

Little after little, ever-growing masses of soldiers took part, and when, in the evening of the twenty-second of August, we were led into the firing line, the battle had already developed to one of the most murderous of the World War.

When we arrived, the French were still in possession of nearly three-quarters of the town.

The artillery had set fire to the greatest part of Neufchateau, and only the splendid villas in the western part of the town escaped destruction for the time being.