ficers of the Germans tried to rally their men for further
operations, but their soldiers had had enough and refused to renew
their work.

The Germans, however, did not give up in their attempts to take Hill
627, which they called Ban-de-Sapt, and in an assault they made upon
it on June 22 they took the hill. Thereupon the general in command of
the Thirtieth Bavarian Division made the following announcement:

"I have confidence that the height of Ban-de-Sapt will be transformed
with the least possible delay into an impregnable fortification and
that the efforts of the French to retake it will be bloodily
repulsed."

On the night of July 8 the French began a bombardment which was
followed by an infantry charge which forced its way through five lines
of trenches and gained the redoubt on the top of the hill, in spite of
its corrugated iron and gun-shield defenses to which had been added
logs and tree trunks. At the same time the French made an attack on
the German trenches on the left and surrounded the hill from the
eastward. The Germans on the right flank of the French were kept busy
by another attack. In this battle two battalions of the Fifth Bavarian
Ersatz Brigade were taken from the German ranks either by death or as
prisoners. The French captured eight hundred and eighty-one, of whom
twenty-one were officers, who, for the most part, were men of more
than ordinary education.

The principal work of the French troops at this time was in the valley
of the Fecht and the neighboring mountains. They planned to go down
through the valley to Muenster and take the railroad to which the
mountain railroads were tributaries. In connection with this campaign
in the mountains the achievement of a company of French Chasseurs
serves to illustrate the heroic and hardy character of these men. They
were surrounded by German troops on June 14, 1915, but refused to
surrender. Instead they built a square camp which they prepared to
hold as long as one of them remained alive. When their ammunition
began to give out, they rolled rocks down on their enemy and hurled
large stones at the advancing foe. At the same time the French
artillery aided them by raining shells on the Germans, though the
artillery was miles from the scene of action. Thus the Chasseurs were
able to hold their position until they were relieved on June 17,
1915. In the meantime the French proceeded down the valley of the
Fecht and up the mountains overlooking the va