The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-11-16
MUCH WRECKAGE
IN CHAMPAGNE
Three Weeks After the Great Battle
There Was an Accumulation
Which Gave Some Idea of
the Devastation of the
Big Battle.

still wreckage enough remaining on the
battlefield Of Champagne three weeks
after the battle was fought to give some
| idea of the havoc of destruction when
lit was fresh after the advance Within
space fifteen miles in length by from
one to three in breadth at least mil.
lion men were engaged on both sides;
twenty-five thousand prisoners were taxi
en-; and at least two or three shells for
! every man engaged was fired.
That sheet Of preparatory shell fire
which had descended upon fifteen miles
of German front trenches had meant a
swath of slaughter to start with. For
three days, night and day, this lombard
ment continued. According TO the ac-
counts of German prisoners they could
only hug the shelter of their subter-
ranean chambers under their crumbling
parapets. A wall Of artillery fire back
of the trenches kept the supplies from
reaching them. In front Of the trenches
the continued crash OF shrapnel blasts
was cutting the bsrbed wire. For months
the French had been aecumnlating am
munition which they poured out from
every calibre of gun.
This shell fire not only killed and
wounded Germans, not only made the
most elaborate trenches into dustheaps
but Uttered the field wiwth smashed Ger
man caissons. transport wagons, cloth
ing. equipment and all the impediments
of an army There was peace in the
German trenches for the first time in
three days as the wave of French in
fantry rushed for the German trenches.
Then the French guns stopped firing
lest they kill their own men. The wave
had not more than two hundred yards
to GO. Estimate the time that IL takes
the average man 10 run that distance
and you have the time it took the French
soldiers to reach the wreckage which
had been the German trenches and Crap
pie with any survivors in the dugouts.
In some places the wave swept on beyond
the trench like the tide running up an
inlet. The Germans between such forces
were caught in a pair Of pincers. This
accounted for the prisoners who were
taken in patches. They were surround
ed by infantry with no way OF retreat
open to them.
"Only the little things now remain"
said a French soldier who was salvaging
in the ruins Of the German redoubt Of
la Poche--"The Pocket"-in the famous
Trou Bricot sector. AT the start. Of
course. we buried the dead and gathered
mp the broken machine guns which had
been destroyed BY our gun fire.
The town OF Npres in the British line
probably remains the most collosal ex-
ample Of shell fire. But Npres was a
town Il was not built 10 Withstand
shell FIRE. but a. home for men in time
Of pcace. In Trou Brichot the Germans
With the science and amazing industry.
which characterize their operations. had
set out to build themselves = hastion
which would withstand the kind of TIRE
they had visited upon Npres. They had
been a. work for many months perfect.
ing Il from time 30 time enlarging and
strengthening H. busy ~ snts in q bill /
II wns a vast warren ~ sandhaRs hrist- 4
ling With machine guns q knnckle-hke
salient In the German iraut line. small 4
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