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Longwy (lôn-wē') was a French city of about ten thousand people, lying about 25 miles northwest of Metz, the great German fortress in Lorraine, and just over the border from Luxemburg. Barely had the war been inaugurated by the invasion of Belgium when another powerful army under the German Crown Prince poured into eastern France through Luxemburg. Longwy, which had a fortress of the second class, was immediately attacked. For nearly three weeks a perfect tornado of shells was rained upon the devoted city. The fort was held by about 3000 Frenchmen who made an heroic defense, surrendering only when further resistance became impossible. The fort lay in ruins about them, its walls whether of concrete or masonry shattered into fragments, its guns dismounted. The upper part of the city, in which there were about four hundred houses, was completely demolished. Of church, shops, houses, nothing remained but tottering walls, unsightly piles of shattered stone, torn and twisted iron rails. Some conception of the ruin may be gathered from the scene before us. The men whom we see are German soldiers, two of them wearing the spiked iron helmet and the other the soft-gray field cap used early in the war by German privates. Longwy is divided into two parts by the Chiers River, which flows through the middle of the city. In the southern section, known as Longwy-Bas, there were mines, factories and iron works, and the houses clung to the sides of hills which arouse almost from the river bank. This section of the city suffered comparatively little damage. Copyright by the Keystone View Company