Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-01-25
Artillery Fighting Goes on Day
and Night in Vicinity of
Nancy Men Keep Close to
Trenches in Daytime.
SHARPSHOOTERS ON
JOB AT ALL TIMES
Batteries Are Closely Screened
From Eyes of AvlatorS; Of
fIcerS and Soldiers Well Fed
and Healthy,
low Moanlna Iounn.l errel.l lrAarn u,nrl

lay MORNING JOURNAL SPECIAL LsAsKn wissl
Nancy, France. Jan. "a (via Paris
! ll:20 p. Throughout the war
! the veil of secrecy has hung thekest
over the Lorraine frontier, and II a
correspondent was to be shown any
thing he was always sent elsewhere.
Among the spurs of the Vosges,
around Nancy. has occurred fighting
! unsurpassed for stubbornness and
/ picturesqueness. Here command of
the heights meant that the valley was
death trap. Here the woods and
forests screen artillery from aerial
reconnaissance, and the conditions of
the wilderness in the civil war in the
I United States often are reproduced.
In Nancy, the thrifty, tidy capital
| of French Lorraine. life seems more
normal than in Paris. The city is used
to having war on the outskirts as the
German aviators need only fly twenty
miles to drop their bombs. and there
Is no surprise to the population.
Nancy is also as brilliantly lighted as
in peace time until 10 o'clock in the
evening when all lights are put out.
Officers, fosy-cheeked from facing
the mountain gales, come in from the
| front to dine at a restaurant. They
look as sturdy as lumberjacl<s.
From the high points in the suburbs
the gunfire from some directions is
audible any hour OF the day, which
means that some French battery saw
Germans, in its range working on a
new trench, or is touching up Ger
man battery.
The correspondents first of three
tours was northward In the direction
OF Pont-a- -Mousson and the lie pretrie
forest, which are on the French front
of the German wedge in the French
lines between the fortresses of Toul
and Verdun.
II is dull day on Pont-a- Mousson
whom no shells fall The people take
to cover with the first and go on with
business when the shower is over.
In the lie Pretrie forest, as in the
other forests of the Vosges, the winter
life of the troops is similar to that
of a healthy winter camp in the Ad-
lrondacks, in contrast to the. muddy
and flooded reaches of the lowlands
line in Belgium and northeastern
France.
Conditions In Forest.
The forests are SCARED in places, as
for numbering operations, where fields I
FOR fire have been cleared; but usually |
there have been only scattered cut |
tlngs, so as to leave the branches Of ,
other trees as n screen and as wood 4
at hand for cooking, for building shell |
ters for horses and for timbering the |
trenches and shell-proofs for the men.
The French army i'm the Vosges is
having healthy woodland outing.
Rabbits and other game, including
wild boars, are to be shot The ar
tillery is not popular because shell |
from it striking the limb of tree
makes splinters with power of pene-
tration enough to cause nasty wounds.
The French soldiers literally are
stuffed with food. Many of them live
better than at home. The braeing
mountain air gives them keen appe-
tites. An officer told me that the
men of his company now averaged
five pounds more in weight than when
they went to war.
In the forest regions, whore the
lines are close together as trenches
are taken and re-taken at critical
points, Red Cross cars are waiting
on the sldlngs to take south the
wounded. a
In the open country where there
are no trees to screen the guns. the
pains taken to hide them are most
ingenious. The correspondent and his
party literally walked into one bat
tery. Indeed, they might have walked
over II as the only sign of It's exist
ence was a cellar-llke opening for de-
scent under the timbered roof. COW
cred with dirt
Don't tell Emperor William where
we are said one of the gunners.
We are sure he does not know
From any height in the yosges the
lnes become as clear as those of
Gettysburg from Round Top.
All communications are carried out
and supplies furnished under cover of
darkness. Thanks to the watchful- I
ness of the sharpshooters and the ar,
tillery, the soldiers in the front
trenches literally are prisoners dur
ing the day,
As far as one can see over that
white world of mountains and woods,
both the French and German posi-
lions could be plotted. 1t is clear :
why each dead zone between them ex-
lists and why each side holds where it
as In this winter climate. Men can !
no more lie out nights on the cold I,
slopes of the Vosges in an extensive !
forward movement than they could +
IN the Tennessee mountains under v
Grant and Longstreet. h