Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1915-11-19
THE SILENT
BATTLEFIELD

| New York; )- Today is Sunday and we
have motored out to the valley of
Mejszago!a. where the battle for Vii.
ma Was fought. our way Law through
abandoned trenches and barbed wire
entanglements, dug or stretched thro.
CSh cemeteries. cabbage patches and
potato fields.
Entering the ruins of Nriszarola
We obtained the first real view of the
battlefield: and in its center. the dI
iapidaied skeleton of what in peace
time WAS a church. II was all so
quiet: One COULD hardly real %
that from the second TO the eleven :,
of September. $1,000 of the Russian
( guard and the German landstrum were
locked. in this Smile valley. in a seeth.
ing dea,h-strugglc. II was but one of
the terrible. decisive engagements of
this war, about which the public has
scarcely heard.
This battle was the beginning If Tho
iaiI OF Wilma. the first city the Car
tried to save when ho took personal
command OF his army. Wilma was =
beautiful, modern city about the size
of indianapolis: 4 terminal on the
main rail line To Pc,rograd The Car
"htr"nch"d 100000 tropps about the
ciiE. including divisions Of his per.
Sonal guard. KovnO had fallen and
l!lndenbur2 was coming. September
2nd the armies met at MeisZagola
ana Tor nine days I'll" crash and roar
OF bedlam reign"d in the Russians
hopeless task OF checking the Tcuon's
advance. The night of the eleventh
the Germans stoImCd an entangle-
ment and the trench back of II dcliv.
cred heavy flank attacks and were
commanders of the whole position.
had 10000 prisoners and sealed Vii
mas fate.
We stopped before the church. Ten
PAGES brought us Ia an old grave.
yard in which the storm of shells had
plowed 40 the skeletons of those long
dead and scattered them about. stark
and white, like an army of fallen
ghosts lying in the wake OF battle.
srinning ut the daylight. The green
sod OF III" surrounding fields was
"ircwn with the remnants of shells
which had exploded in mid-air and
rainGd their deViliSh iron and fir,.
on the struggling men. The white
church walls were splashcd with red.
We returned To the church. Peas.
ants were silently passing in an out.
We lifted our hats and tip-toed i'm.
Sid". IN" iioor. save for narrow pas.
sages To the altar was buried i'm straw. !
The ROOF was torn TO pieces and more
than one shell had exploded inside. |
for pictures. statues of Christ. altar
clothes, candle sticks and benches |
were smashed and torn. Before the |
unrcCognizable altar knplt woman !
and girl, heads bowed. sobbing. A |
big. siN-ioot, fu.clad peasant came in |!
and knclt in The straw halfway down |
IN" aisle. An old woman who had |
been mOtionless beside the sDlinicred |
pulpit, began crawling and around il. |
Sav" for the staccato napping of a |
loose sheet of tin on the sieeple roof !
as the gusty wind swept over IL. this |
house of God and the battlefield |
about, were silent
We sauntered through the town. !
past the black piles of burned homes. |
and out into the Russian trenches. ,
These. dug slightly below the crest |
of the hill, were archifeclurally so per.
feet that they blended into the land |
scape 500 feet away. These trenches
commanded the valley. across which,
OH the forests fringe. were the Ger
man trenches. Tho green fields be.
tween were peppcrCd with the black |
spots that artillery fire makes. We
walked the tops of the Russian tren-
chcs. which are built of heavy logs /
and cement blocks covered with Gvc
and six layers of green sod. Once
looked down. A dead Russian stared
up at me-
Scattered everywhere were caps.
coats. shoes. food bottles and per.
sonal effects. Used rifle ammunition
lay like seed sown on new field.
Here and there were Is and 81 con
timeter shells. unexploded. still hug.
ging their death-dealing power. Bits of |
white paper bearing firing line rc.
ports that had been telephoned TO the
artillery positions, scattered crafty |
about the desolate field in the breeze.
Everywhere were single graves: some |
marked with cross and helmet. others
barren. ii
We walked to the edge of the thick |
woods. then back TO the first line Ger.
man position. Torn Russian and Ger.
man uniforms. bloOd.stained knives.
bayonets. guns. belts, helmets. caps.
overcoats and graves were strange
flowers in this wierd garden that
death grew in the green. cupped val.
ley twiXt here and the Russian en-.
ergency trenches on the far slope.
From among the Russians and Ger.
mans lying there side by side in death.
! picked up German belt buckle bear.
ing the inscription God with U.s..
The HugsInn biblcg scatfpred nbout