The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-10-15
BATTLE OF SOISSONS AS Seen
BY WRITER ON FIRING Line

N ASoiAdA SAdbu Ou OuE Tlbul just DC-
hind the hospital showed that the Ger
man range was getting nearer. Some
OF our party naturally became
alarmed. Then we all crouched down
behind our autos as another shell
Whistled close to US and dropped in a
garden. Two of the spent pieces ac-
tually fell at our feet and a few Sec
ond afterwards another spent piece OF
shell, still hot, struck one OF our
party on the leg.
1t was evident that we were in
great danger. Some one said, stand
by the cars"
1t was good job we did not take
this advice: but We might have done
IL If at that moment a woman at the
door Of the village wine shop across
the street had not shouted: Come
inside, for Gods sake!"
Flee Into a Cellar.
We did not need twice asking.
Hardly had we got across the thresh-
old when a tremendous noise like a
million rawhide whips cracking at the
same moment, followed by the noise
OF falling masonry, showed that we
were in for regular bombardment
Everybody rushed for the cellar.
AS soon as the dust and smoke had
cleared away someone crept up the
steps to look out and returned say
Ing one of the turrets on each side OF
anfrnnnn rot fN h. nA
been completely demolished by the
last shell. And still they came, and
there we huddled looking into each
others eyes, as well as the dim light
would admit in that little wine cellar
with its solid vaulted roof that we
prayed might not give way should
the house be struck I shall never
forget the time spent in that cellar
There were twenty-three of us, in
cluding about seven women of the
village and a little boy. We we're
there from 1920 a. m. until little
after noon, with shells dropping all
around US. One dropped five yards
from the door, the shock breaking
making an enormous hole in the road.
Another shell struck the ground about
twelve feet in front of our cars, just
grazing and mashing q portion of
the village cross
Everything has an end, and we
could hear the shells bursting farther
and farther away. Still it was deemed
prudent to lie low for bit.
Eat as Shells Scream.
After a tine one of the villagers
went out at a rear door and brought
back a big dish of fried Clipped po-
tatoes and bread, SO that with the
wine in the cellar we made a hearty
lunch under the circumstances. We
were very hungry, as we had eaten
nothing since the previous evening.
When 1t was safe to get out We
found that the shell that dropped near
the cars had burst two tires on the
car rode in, had smashed all three
Of the wind shields, and filled the car
bodies and covers full of holes. The
cars looked as If they had been pep
pered with machine guns. Luckily
the engines were not damaged in the
least.
The Germans, being deeply in
trenched in old chalk quarries, a sort
Of natural fortress in the hillsides
overlooking Scissors, continued to
reply to the numerous French guns
with impunity and occasionally to
lombard Scissors and Vauxbuin. Up
to the time of my leaving this same
thing had been going on for over a
week.
Scissors is in pitiable state. The
Germans have not spared its old ca
thedral with its two Gothic spires.
From the rear of the hospital at
Vauxbuin we had fine view of this
grand old landmark. One of the
steeples is broken off about half way,
and the other has a big hole in the
side, plainly seen three miles off.
passed about four days here.
The artillery firing was terrific from
morning to night. The battle ranges
over an enormously extended front.
l saw some shockingly wounded
men while at Vauxbuin. The night
before l left five men were brought in
with fearful injuries in different parts
of the body. A German shell had
dropped among eight artillerymen
serving one of the French guns. The
other three men were killed on the
spot. This is just an incident among
hundreds that are happening every day.
At one village I passed through,
where the Germans had left 100
wounded, most of whom were brought
in under cover two days after the
battle by the French, the doctors
asked me, implored me, to try and get
some milk for the wounded. Nearly
all the cattle have been driven out
of the country to safer places or have
been reQuisitioned either by the Ger
man or the French forces. Many
lives are lost on both sides through
exposure and lack of attention after
being wounded. Cases of gangrene
and tetanus are not infrequent. The
doctors and nurses are doing heroic
work. but it often happens that they
are very much overcrowded before
they have a chance to remove those
wounded who are able to be sent to
other hospitals. At Vauxbuin the hos
pital was crowded. There were 400
people there, and the house had only