Evening star., 1915-01-02
GERMANS ARE KEPT
BACK FROM VERDUN
French Commander Deter
mined His City Shall Never
Be Besieged.
SOLDIERS ARE AT WORK
BUILDING NEW DEFENSES
Additional Roads Are Under Con.
struction and Men Have Com
Portable Winter Homes.

Portable Winter Homes.
f"-riGu Correspondence of The Star.
BEFORE NERDUN, December 22.-
There has been mystery in this war,
and its heart has been Verdun This
fortress city has never been actually
besieged. The general in command.
whose name 1 am not at liberty to
give, told me he was resolved to OBJ
serve the truth embodied in the old
military maxim: "A city besieged is a
city captured" To accomplish this he
has kept the heavy German guns as
far out of the range of the forts as he
could, and has extended by earthworks
and intrenchments the actual fortified
zone at this point OH the Meuse
The general does not intend, if tenac-
ity and hard work count for anything
in war, that Eerdun ever shall be be-
sieged in the strict sense of the word
siege operations are, it is true, in prog
ress already. but the nearest point to
Nerdun occupied by the Germans, Ju-
melles dOrnes. twin wooded heights
to the northeast of the fortress, is
about eight miles away.
Fortifcations Extended.
The generals endeavor to give more
room to Eerdun has resulted in ex-
tending the Notifications of Verdun
many miles beyond the former zone.
Nerdun, indeed. summarizes a develop
ment in the art of siege operations.
1t is walled battlemented city with
moat. drawbridges and portcullis, pro-
tected by an outer ring of forts, which
were modern a few months ago. Now
every height and every valley in the
country for twenty miles around has
been so labored at that there are fields
ploughed by trenches and hillsides SO
closely dotted with short poles sup
porting barbed wire that they recall
the vineyards of Champagne when the
vines have been cut in the autumn.
In the valleys through which we
passed on our way to a vantage point
in the Meuse heights from which to
survey artillery duel in progress
we gained more clearly than in the
PLAINS of Flanders some idea of the
way in which war is a test of national
efficiency, and of the completeness with
which an army is self-contained.
Building New Roads.
Regiments were at work making new
roads and remaking old where they
were worn by the constant stream of
food and ammunition conveys, of ar
tillery on the march, of rushing motors
cars and of ponderously moving heavy
guns. In the woods other regiments
were telling trees. clearing the fire
zone of some hidden battery. Others
were weaving twigs into baskets
which. filled with earth. will strengthen
the scattered defenSeS. In the hills
others again were cutting the trunks
of young trees into stakes for barbed
wire entanglements. preparing plankS
for the roofing of trenches, or for the
inanufacture Of hospital beds. or for
the construction of the marvellous win
ter dwellings, which the handy soldier
OF France is building for himself in
these exposed regions.
Gazing from the observation station
the eye was caught here and there by
clusters of men busy as bees. White
Iibbon-like roads were speckled with
slowly moving dots of motor conveys,
of the ever gay-hearted French artil-
position from the battery emplace-
,nents. constructed with marvellous
skill by French engineers in the ex-
posed hillside around Verdun.
BY giving free rein to the initiative
and constructive abilities of the pri-
vate in the French artillery the whole
OF this section of the front is dotted
with charming artillery garden
Cities made by the men themselves
without any supervision from their Of
ficers. huSe scoop is taken out
of the wooded, sandy hillside and the
village neatles right into the heart OF
| the hill Above IL is a nr-crO"ne
crest, over which the guns fire a point
g" on ~ h II some miles away. Be
o-r il stretches a valley faxed with
a-.g smoke of the Soldierwood-
.7-es- over the distant range OF
fpats captive balloon. Here and
CLINT of sun upon the wings
Ieeding aeroplane-
-vi1er View of Battlefield.
bling higher up the hillside-in-
=. quite to the very crest of the
4n-e-we had 4 wider view of the
Battlefield OF the Meuse. From the
point upon which we were standing,
i, facing northeast, n ragged white line
in the plain marked the German
trenches. Behind it across the wood of
Nontgaucon, set like piece of jade in
' the silver of innumerable lakes and
streams. rose the pointed spire of
Mont S&-con, it's outline blurred by a
cloud of smoke hanging over the viii
lage. The sound of guns firing upon
Montgaucon was nuffied by the cush-
ion of the intervening hill and forest.
Never was there such pleasantly
peaceful afternoon.
Suddenly with a soaring roar over
the woods in the foreground four
shells from the battery near which we
stood sped out toward the hidden
Germans. 1t all seemed very aimless
tntll Cen s., pointing overhead, eX-
Ilained this sudden activity. An aero
|plane working with this battery had
transmitted by wireless the result of
its reconnaissance. Little specks of
ght, such as splinter the darkness of
|tEc night on an overhead electric
I rannway showed bright even against
|thc daylight sky as battery after bat
terr came into action. All seemed as
if anxious TO join in the conversation
bass. alto and tenor. made their
voices heard, and down in the plain
iloHg the tree-lined road the men in
khc trenches stopped their game of
omiroes and prepared to add asth-
''aric soprano of musketry to the gen.
,ral chorus.
Day and night this apparently aim
less artillery duel fills the hills with
the sound of the banging of big gongs.
Day and night French cavalry patrol
the two neutral zones, the no mans