New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-12
By FRED u. PITNEY.
'oryriSht. 1918. by The New York Tnbune)

staff officers who guide observation
parties always say: "You have seen
the first line trenches at blank, 50
there is no use taking you into them
here"
But observers always insist, and the
General staff officers are usually pre-
pared to accede after little urging
to a reasonable request. When the re-
fusal is final and absolute one can be
sure that it is because danger is too
imminent and constant.
At one point on the trip from when
| have just returned we came to
place where the lines were only forty
yards apart, and we observers were
particularly anxious to get into the
first line trenches at that place. For
a few minutes it seemed as though
there was a chance for us, and we got
so far as matching coins to decide VINO
should make up the party.
But forty yards is by no means an
impossible distance for the throwing
of hand grenades. Indeed, some men
become extremely accurate with them
even up to fifty yards, and after a
consultation among the officers on the
activities at that particular place II
was decided that we would have to
give up the idea.
Ny experience on the first line was
always new and on 200 miles of front |
never found two places exactly alike.
Looking down on them from an obser-
walton station, one usually finds that
the chief difference lies in the varia-
ton of pattern. Seen from an observa-
ton point the trenches, dug in the soft
limestone and sandstone formation OF
frances east front, look like narrow,
straight, white lines drawn across the
fields and along the edges Of the woods.
Peaceful as a Backyard.
One sees no signs of activity, and il
seems utterly unreasonable to be told
that one cannot cross that group as
freely as ones own backyard at home.
1t seems as though one were looking
down on an old battlefield lOnc de-
serted instead Of the scene of the most
modern applied science of killing.
Then suddenly shell screams over
head and one waits for the explosion
and tries to guess which point is being
shelled. | stood at one observation
post on the edge of a wood more en-
gagged in wondering if we could get back
to our automobile before the next rain
started than in studying the ground
before me. when | noticed the song OF
tn. shells getting closer. Simms, of
the United Press, stood beside me and
we discussed the calibre of the guns
that were being fired, when after one
she'll had passed we saw little column
of smoke rising from the tall grass five
hundred feet away. Within a minute
and half three shells fell there inside
a radius of fifty feet and the fuses ~
Zled out without one exploding. but
that is how peaceful an apparently
peaceful scene really is.
On the other hand one stands again
looking at much similar scene, put
this time one is in the first line
trenches and instead of peering through
the branches Of trees one cautiously
approaches sidewise a loophole in the
parapet and looks down on the ruins
Of a little village nesting under the
hills on the bank of the Mouse. The
village is only 500 yards away and the
whole bank Of the river is commanded
by French trenches. Again the peace
full quiet of a summer afternoon IN
the Mohawk Valley reigns. All CONVEX
sation is in whispers, for the line OIL
German trenches stretches between
the village and the French lines.
Shells Chop Clump of Trees.
An officer at my side points out to
me a little cluster Of trees at the ex-
IRENE edge of the village.
THAT bunch Of slightly lighter
green" he says, keep your eye on
that. We have just learned that the
Germans sneaked a machine gun IN
there last night and the colonel has or
dered a few shells dropped on it.
The French batteries are FAR back
under cover and to the uninitiated Il
seems a dangerous thing to try to miss
a line of their own trenches and drop
shells on that clump of trees.
Bat while we watch we hear the
sound of guns somewhere behind US.
Then shells scream in our ears. There
is another explosion of bursting shells
and a cloud of smoke rises, while a sec
ton of the wall slowly heaves up and
drops over on that little bunch of
lighter green. Four shells have fallen
inside a hundred foot circle and moth
ing is left Of the trees or the gun they
sheltered.
This is the true peacefulness Of that
apparently ancient battlefield and those
white lines of trenches.
Trenches Like Gear Wheels.
When one leaves an observation post
and arrives at the trenches, one soon
finds that they are not by any means
laid out on straight lines. On the con-
trary, following trenches is like fol-
lowing the perimeter of huge gear
wheel with cogs ten feet square, ana
when you have crossed field through
the trenches you have walked three
times as far as you would have TO go
in a straight line on the surface.
Communication trenches and those OF
the fighting line are all built In the
same way, except that the communi-
cation trenches progress in a more or
less straight line at the beginning.
But they soon take on the gear wheel
construction.
In descriptions OF old warfare we
read of breastworks. but modern
trenches are dug eight and sometimes
ten feet deep down into the ground, and
the parapets of earth are often rein
forced by sandOsgs thrown up above
then The trenches are. perhaps. q