The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-10-10
BODIES or GERMAN TROOPS
DEAD IN TRENCHES WITHOUT
WOUNDS.
Germans Reported to Bc Discouraged
by Continuous Fighting Without
Food or l:cst-COrrcspondcnt De-
picts scenes on BattIcfclds.
(Ry Herbert Tcmple.)

iuCtOT III tut great StTuSSlc. lime ana
again stories emanating from Paris
mentioned the great secret and the
strike down the German hosts.
Not once has there been given an
inkling of tho nature Of the great
secret but London correspondent
writing from Dieppe, after a visit to
the battle fields along the Marne, be-
lieves that he has found it in the
three-inch field guns used by French
which according to the stories, para
lyze the Germans us they stand, killing
them apparently without wounding
them and leaving them much as were
left the victims Of the great volcanic
| tragedies of Herculaneum and Pom
pcii.
: The writer says: "a visit TO the field
Of the battle Of the Marine shows the
devastating power Of the French g.
inch field gun to be something Of
which we hitherto had not dreamed.
! Entire sections and companiesS Of
German troops have been struck as if
by simultaneous thundcr-bolts, & re-
minding one OF nothing so Eluch as the
wholesale extinctions Of the popula
tions of Herculancum and Pompaii."
Such an account sounds mysteri-
Gus. Were the Germans killed where
they stood by violent and Over-pow-
cring. poisonous fumes? Is that the
great secret" Continuing the cor
respondent says:
"On the borders of one Of the for
fcstss a+eona'e.ys .Sf -PrEssian. sin1 IL y
at bivOuack is laid out as il 1t was sur
prised by the fire. Two sentrics are
still grasping their rifles and n little
way off a messenger lies by himself.
Further on an officer lies a few
yards from his man, who are stretch
cd out with lOOsencd belts and lying in
their blankets. Two of them still hold
playing cards in their hands.
Those sleeping and those who were
awak~ when they died evidently were
swept out Of life together without APP
parcntly having had time to move"
The same thing is noticeable on
other battlciiclds in France, say va
rious writer's bat not one Of them has
made any attempt to explain the mat
ter. Evidently. when the French talk
cd about their great secret they had
in mind something worth talking
about. Is the mysterious "withering
death" Of their three inch field guns
the secret" Apparently the results.
and the comments Of observers would
indicate as much.
The Germans, according to all ac-
counts. have been killed in some way
other than by bullets or fragments OF
shells They have been smothcred to
death, evidently by powerful concus-
sion, or have been asphyxiated by
powerful deadly gas.
Recording further instances of APP
parently mysterious deaths among the
Germans, the correspondent SAYS:
Even more extraordinary is another
group Of sixty dead lying about a small
haysiack as if in sleep their rifles
stacked and their knapsacks arranged
in orderly heaps.
I'm the outer ring the path Of the
shells can be traced in direct line hy
heaps of bodies, but the particular
shell that killed these sixty struck
them i'm front, from behind and at the
sides with the same sudden death and
yet none of them bears any outward
wound. There they are stretched face
downward or staring up ut the sky,
seemingly paralyzcd by the mere force
OF the explosion.
Inc same mysterious results were
seen in many Of the trenches where
Germans were piled i'm rows. The Ger
man army to the east and north of
iih"ims was stated To be strongly in
trenchcd in deep cuttings, with bomb
proof shelters and rest houses UNDER
Er"und and very similar ones were
found at i'ctH, hchind the Our,,,. one
ol these was IL mile and Il quarter
long with tunnels in all directions vet
1t Was filled with dead.
Along the whole lcngth ,r the bat