ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
715 
Corps of tlie 3rd Army and the Wurtemberg Division. These troops 
had crossed the Meuse at Donchery, and by pontoon bridges a little 
further down the river, by 6 o'clock. The two corps marched to the 
right towards St. Menges, while the Wurtemberg Division remained to 
block the road westwards. The advanced guard of the troops moving 
north was directed next on Fleigneux, to cut the French off from the 
Belgian frontier; its leading troops encountered little resistance, and 
were deployed towards Illy, but then they had to sustain several 
assaults from their foes, who strove hard to clear a road northwards. 
The three first German batteries which arrived near St. Menges 
came into action to the south-east of that village, and had to make a 
gallant struggle to maintain themselves against the powerful line of 
French artillery between Floing and the Calvaire d'llly, and three 
guns of one had to be withdrawn out of action. 1 These guns co¬ 
operated most efficiently with the infantry in repulsing the charge 
which the Margueritte cavalry division made upon them at this period 
of the fight. 
But as the time passed reinforcements were approaching, and at 
1 o'clock the whole Corps Artillery of the 11th Corps joined the leading 
guns, and 14 batteries stood in action in one combined mass. To their 
left the artillery of the 5th Corps were likewise forming up, and thus 
24 batteries, subsequently further increased, were throwing their shells 
into the contracted French position before them. 
The cross fire of these batteries, and of the Guard Artillery, which 
was also coming into action on the high ground east of Givonne, 
produced an overpowering effect. “ The French guns were partly 
dismounted, partly deprived of their detachments and teams; many 
ammunition wagons were blown into the air. The troops, already 
shaken in their steadiness, fled from many points of the line into the 
Bois de la Garenne." 
There is abundant evidence in the official account of the tremendous 
effect produced by this cross fire, which annihilated every attempt the 
French infantry made to assume the offensive and recover the spur of 
Illy, from which they had been driven ; and the performances of the 
Artillery of the Guard under Prince Kraft receive, in the judicial 
utterances of the German General Staff, as high encomiums as their 
proud leader lavished on them in his celebrated letters. 
The Guard had arrived on the upper Givonne about 10 o'clock, and 
had completed the German line between the 12th and 5th Corps in the 
great concentric attack which was holding the French tightly gripped 
on all sides. 
At 2 o'clock 60 of their guns were vigorously co-operating with the 
artillery of the 3rd Army, and, drawn up in one great battery opposite 
Givonne, were searching the wood of La Garenne with a most effective 
fire. The five other batteries of the Guard were posted further to the 
south, and with seven of the Saxon and two Bavarian batteries formed 
another formidable mass which engaged the French batteries to the 
west of Daigny. Further to the south, in front of La Moncelle and 
1 Official account. Part I.. Vol. II. 
95 
