The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1915-04-24
Thirty thousand Left Unburled
Between Trenches As Part
OR Wars Strategy.
MEN DRIVEN BACK INSANE
Guns Never Quiet Along Rib
bon Of hell In Cham
pagns District.
by Herbert Corey.

. ~ AA'aN'aN AOiNls
AT THE FRONT IN FRANCE. Aprt
- AT night the dead cry out iu
torment They writhe In the green
light Of the bursting shells
Tint Was The stutemeut-WU for
word OF rrusslau captain as We
gazcd nj II part OF that dread field in
The hHmpugue country, where thlrIy
thousand deud men lie unbured. he
WIS no svutlmeutalisl, tnIs captain.
he refusal UI the French to permit
the burial uf these fostering heups was
accepted by him calmly Ir Is II part
uf the great sluughJeruus strategy
both slides are puylng His face
worked "a, hr spoke.
w hen the sun comes out said he,
up man ruu brur the OdUr long, II ls
an impossibllty The stencil cuts your
thruuI us though 10y the fumes Of ucid.
In the foremost trenches the men
cough nnd cough rs they work with
thelF rifles"
. wish tu tell as calmly In rs mat
ter Of fact way a. pusslble-Of a con
dltlon which Is unlike anything the
world has ever seen before.
That statement may be- qualified In
Just one respect similar condition
once existed At ST. Mhiel aud there
the dead men conquered They drove
the living enemies out of theit
trenches Before their awful weapon
neither French nor Teuton coulu
stand.
For eighty five days the French
have been trying tO batter their way
through the German lines between
Perthes aud Cernay. In the champagne
country. Their efforts have been
ceaseless IN the most literal acceptance
Of that term There has not been
moment on that x-mie-long battle
front that guns. somewhere have not
been speaking
The bombardment has been almost
as active by night as by day. Few
days have passetl-perhaps no days
heve passed-ln which at least one az.
tempt 10 storm German trenches was
not made. On their part the Germans
have been quite AZ determined Be
cause they have been on the defensive
because they have only been holding
their trenches losses are much
less than those OF the French The
Germans say their losses have not been
more than one-third
10000 Unburied Dead.
space sometimes 100 yards wide.
sometimes 800 yards wide separates
the two lines Of advanced trenches
along this ribbon Of hell. On that
ghhstly terrain 10000 Frenchmen lie
dead.
Let that total enter your conscious
ness
Twenty thousand French soldiers
died there In every form of agony
Some mercifully died quickly. Some
laid there In the sun and snow and
rain and cried out to their God TO
end their suffering, and so died by
inches Some lived four days In that
welter Of corruption before a kind
death came 10 them. They began dy-
ing there In October They died there
the day watched the fight. Not one
body has ever been buried or removed
The most that either French or Ger
man has been able to do has been 10
throw lime upon them from force
pumps. These pumps carry but twenty
metres, and no man dare leave his
trench 10 cover these revolving masses
that now threaten the Champagne
country with pestilence the revenge
the dead will take upon those who
live.
With the French dead cheek nv
iowl elbow 10 elhow-lle nNo~ thou.
sands N German dead They haN-
fallen IN the counter charges which
often follow the French attacks Most
Of the German dead, however, are
, piled hack of their own trenches The
estimate Of the German staff IL that
, 10000 may have died here since the
battle lock began In October That
IL the very highest estimate. No one
knows precisely No one knows pre-
cisely how many French dead there
/ are. II Is but guesswork
, In the eighty.five days during which
this slaughter pit has been piled with
rotting slain the French have not
/ gained advantage " consequence. They
4 have presisted In the attack with a
q grim herOism that eau only awaken
admiration. The Germans declare
, that they-even the men " the Ger.
? man front--wOnder at their absolute
. disregard Of life, their savage refusal
p 10 accept rebuff Now and then the
French take a short length OF trench.
r Now and then the Germans take an
other short length Mostly they only
maintain their death grip upon each
other. Each dies neither wins
D foot
Slaughter Won Nothing.
e The French washed us out Of three
r short trenches Yesterday" m officer
Y Of the general staff said to me, They
q simply hore away the trenches with
, artillery fire II was not that they
killed the men They destroyed the
II trenches. The trenches--they are no
= more. They are Kaput"
J. The three short trenches covered a
e total ~ 600 metres. In return the
Germans washed away" an approxi
mately equal length ~ trench by ar.
tillery fire Those trenches, too. are
D no more. They have ceased 10 be-.
Where they wew are bat the craepr~
= = Of the heavy shells mingled with
Y hioody ana corroding fragments whfch
= once were men. The dermsns rsfreef.
: "a to the NEXT terrain nerhsp ~