Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-01-17
Correspondent Describes a
Visit to the German
Trenches.
WAS SCENE
Never a Minute Without Its
Continual Hail of Lead
and Shrapnel.

BERLIN, Dec. 30.-Dangers at
tending the act Of withdrawing ia
tigued forces from the German
trenches and relieving them with
fresh troops is dramatically dis
cussed by a correspondent of the
Berlinger T~ageblatt, who prefaced
the story with experiences of him
self and colleagues in getting into
and u Of the firing line.
I'VE could only reach the village
Essen" he writes. Here we had to
leave the automobile in the mud be-
hind a church whose walls showed
the marks of a desperate struggle.
Everywhere on the ground, band
ages, arms and parts of uniforms
everything covered with yellow mud.
Beside the church were fresh
graves.
From Eessen to DiXmude the
road for three kilometers runs par
nllel to the French trenches. Every
auto and every wagon seen on the
road is taken under fire from the
trenches, which are only about four
hundred yards away.
so we left the automobile in
cover and continued our journey on
foot. keeping about sixty feet apart,
III OIutI W NC 40 IiC'AAtI'NNC@' -
the enemy as possible. But they al
ready had seen us. A rolling fusll-
ade began to sweep the road. We
Jumped from tree to tree, and made
part of the distance by running in
stopped positions behind a hedge.
The mud was several feet deep in
places and our way lay past
trenches and dead horses. Many OF
the animals were c~hestnuts, deeply
inbedded in the mud, and their wide
open eyes stared INTO the leaden sky
I'm most uncanny fashion.
just Missed Him.
"Of a sudden the man ahead OF
me shouted and jumped behind the
wall of a building that had been lald
low. He believed he had been hit,
but as luck would have 1t, the bull
LET lust missed him and buried itself
with a thud in a nearby tree.
Ellis experience induced us TO
progress a little more rapidly and
with greater caution-from V 10
cover.
After a while we came to an eX-
posed railroad crossing, some nine
hundred feet from the trenches OF
the enemy. First one man bolted
across the open place, then the
OIneT,. uIlll WE WI 80 V'N'
bullets from the French helped eV-
eryone to lose no time.
but now we had the protection
Of the railroad embankment, and
eyailing ourselves of this we soon
reached the ruins of DiXmude. Sew
eral streets. and especially the mar
ket place, lie within the fire zone
of the enemy.
An Uncanny Town.
or this town dwells I'M
spealtable fear. DiXmude has been
shot up as no other place in the
theatre of war. In the shell-tur-
rowed streets the mud Is several feet
deem. and there appears to be not a
single house which has not been hit
bv a shell. But OF this I am not
sure. Dodging from n street cor
ner TO another, to avoid the bullets
which seem to nave a sort or foun-
tain head at the M OF the street
YOU have no time to make many, or
close. observations. At any rate the
ruins form little hills one has diff
Guilty I'm getting over.
Eve finally came to the market
Mace. which Is constantly swept by
n hail OF bullets. In a rush we gain
the shelter Of the walls OF the city
hall on the other side. To one side
of this are the ruins OF st. Nicholas.
recognizable as a church today only
by two walls and a pillar which rear
into tho sky like naked giants.
THE town is empty and deserted.
But YOU become aware OF a noise
less. uncanny sort of life In the
houses. Ii comes from the cellars
where our soldiers are in quarters.
Glad to See Them.
I'VE finally met the commandan'
Of the place. lie had been decor
ated with the iron cross, first class,
and showed That he was glad to see
new faces in this place OF desolation.
AS he explained the situation to
Ms. bullets hit the walls to the left
and right OF ms. We counted 40 In
one minute on the wall Of a build
ing close by. Z~ealously. by day and
night. this waste Of ammunition goes
on.
'The only living creatures our
men found in Dixmude were a dog
and three cats. Three times--fouT
times has Dixmude been the center
81 a battle. But 10 the large
heap of ruins is in our possession,
and with II we have gained a point
directly on the User canal. which
,asses close 10 the last houses OF
the town on the west.
Ho. For the Firing Line.
but we intended to get into the
trenches-tne- firing lire.
The road to this lay through q
trench approach whose wild and
bloody history Is not likely to find
an equal even in this war. off we
go-through hell-wrecked houses
tunnels. cellars. upstairs through
rows Of rooms. then down again
across a narrow street exposed tC
the fire Of the enemy: through
more houses and rooms and scross
Yards. and finally into a long sub.