Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1914-09-24
BY e. ALEXANDER POWELL.


Ninth Imperial Army, Chateau Lafere.
near Renaix, Belgium.-Three weeks
ago the government Of Belgium re-
quested me to place before the Ameri-
can people list of specific and au-
thenticated atrocities committed by
the German armies upop Belgian non
combatants.
Today General Won Boehn. com.
manding the Ninth Imperial field
army, acting mouthpiece of the Ger
man general staff, has asked me to
place before the American people the
German version of the incidents in
question.
So far as / am aware l am the only
correspondent In the present war who
has motored for an entire day through
the ranks of the advancing German
army, who has dined as a guest of the
German army commander and his
staff, and who has had the progress
of the army on the march arrested in
order to obtain photographs OF the
German troops.
This unusual experience came about
in a curious and roundabout way.
Invited by General Won Boehn.
After an encounter in the streets of
Client last Tuesday between Ger
man military automobile and a Bel
gian armored car, in which two Ger
. man soldiers were wounded, American
Vice Consul Van Hee persuaded the
burgomaster to accompany him i'm
mediately to the headquarters Of Gen.
eral Won Boehn to explain the circum-
stances and ask that the city should
tunate affair.
In the course of the conversation
with Mr.. Van Hee General Won Boehn
remarked that copies of papers con-
tanning articles written by Alexander
Powell criticizing the German treat
ment of the Belgian civil population
had come to his attention and said he
regretted he could not have an oppor-
: tunity to talk with Powell and give
him the German version.
Mr.. Van Hee said by fortunate
coincidence happened to be in Client,
whereupon the general asked him to
bring me out to dinner the following
day, and issued safe conduct through
the German lines.
Though nothing was said about a
photographer, took with me Pho
tographer Donald Thompson. AS there
was some doubt regarding the pro-
priety of taking Belgian driver into
the German lines, / drove the. CT
myself
In Midst of kaiser's Men.
Half a mile out of Sottehem our
road debouched into the great high
way which leads through Lille to
Paris. We suddenly found ourselves
in the midst of the German army. 1t
was sight never to be forgotten.
Far as the eye could see stretched
solid columns of marching men, press
ing We ard, ever westward.
The army was advancing in three
mighty columns along three parallel
roads. These dense masses of NOV
ing men in their elusive blue gray
uniforms looked for all the world like :
three monstrous serpents crawling |
across the countryside.
American flags which fiuttered from
our windshield proved a passport in
themselves and as we approached the
close locked ranks they parted to let
us through.
For five solid hours. travelling al
ways at express train speed, we mo-
tored between the walls of the march
ing men. In time the constant shuttle
of boots and the rhythmic swing of
gray-clad arms and shoulders grew
maddening and | became obsessed
with the fear that would send the
car blowing into the human wedge
on either side.
Miles of German Soldiers.
1t seemed that the ranks never
would end, and as far as we were con.
cerned they never did, for we never
saw or heard the end of that mighty
column.
We passed regiment after regiment,
brigade after brigade of infantry, and
after them hussars, uhlans, cuiras-
siers, field batteries, more infantry,
more field guns, ambulances, then
siege guns, each drawn by 80 horses,
engineers, telephone corps, pontoon
wagons, armored motor cars, more
uhlans, the sunlight cleaning on their
forest of lances, more infantry in
spiked helmets, all sweeping by as
Irresistible as a mighty river, with
their faces turned toward France.
This was the Ninth field army and
composed the very flower of the en-
pire, including the magnificent troops
of the Imperial guard. 1t was first
and last lighting army. The men
were all young. They struck me as
being keen as razors and as hard as
nails. The horses were magnificent.
They could not have been better. The
field guns Of the Imperial guard were
almost twice the size of any used by
our army.
ThIrty-two Horses Draw Howitzer.
But the most interesting of ALL of
course, were the five gigantic howit-
zers, each drawn by 16 pairs of horses.
These howitzers can tear a city to
pieces at distance of a dozen miles.
Every contingency seems to have
been foreseen. Nothing was left to
chance or overlooked. Maps OF Bel
GUM, with which every soldier is pro-
vided, are the finest examples OF
topography l have ever seen. Every
path, every farm building, every clump