South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-11-19
TRENCHES TURNED
INTO DUSTHEAPS
WreCkage Remained on Field
Three Weeks After Cham
payne Battle.

CHALO%S. France oct p. email TO
New York. There was stlll wreck
age enough remaining on the battle
field Of Champagne three weeks aIteF
tie battle was fought 10 give some
idea OF the havoc of destruction when
II was fresh after the advance. Within
a space 3 miles in length by from
one 10 three in breadth at least a mill
lion men were engaged on both sides,
5000 prisoners were taken; and at
least two OF three shells for every
man engaged was fired
That sheet OF preparatory shell fire
which had descended upon IL miles OF
Grcman front trenches had meant
swath OF slaughter 10 start with. For
three days. night and day. this bonn
bardment continued. According to
the accounts Of German prisoners they
could only hug the shelter Of the sub
terrancan chambers under their
crun bling parapets. A wall Of artil
lery ire back OF the trenches kept the
supplies from reaching them. In
front of the trenches the continued
crash OF shrapnel blasts was cutting
the barbed wire For months the
French had been accommodating am
munitiOn which they poured out from
every calibre of gun.
This shell fire not only killed and
wounded Germans; not only turned
the most elaborate trenches into dust
heaps. but it Uttered the field with
smashed German caissons. transport
wagons. clothing. equipment and all
sorts OF impediments
There was peace in the German
trenches for the first time in three
days as the wave of French infantry
rushed for the German trenches. Then
the French guns stopped firing lest
they kill their own men.
Had 200 Yards to Go.
The wave had not more than two
hundred yards TO go. Estimate the
time that il takes the average man to
run that distance and you have the
time it took the French soldiers 10
reach the wreckage, which had been
the German trenches and grapple with
any survivors in the dug-outs.
In some places the wave swept on
beyond like the tide running up an
inlet. The Germans between such
forces were caught in pair of pin
GERS. This accounted for the prisoners
who were taken in patches They
were surrounded by infantry with no
way OF retreat open to them
only the little things now remain, ="
said French soldier who was salvag-
ing the rules of the German re5oubt
OF La POche-''The POcket'-in the
famous Trou Bricot sector. AT the
and gathered Up the broken machine
guns which had been destroyed by our
gun-fire."
The town Of ypres in the British
lines probably remains the most col
Cssal example of shell fire. But Ypres
was a town. 1t was not built TO with
stand shell fire. but as home for men
in time of peace. In Trou BricOt the
Germans with the science and the
amazing industry which characterize
all their operations had set out to
build themselves a bastion which
would Withstand the kind of hell they
had visited upon Ypres
They had been at work for many
months perfectins il from time to
time, eniarging and STRENGTHENING it.
busy as ants in a hill. IL was a vast
warren OF sandbags bristling with ma
chine guns-a Gnuckle like salient in
the German front line. Small forests
of barbed wire guarded it right and
left
Was ShrapneI Proof.
1t was as proof against shrapncl rs
slate roof against hail. The exDlo-
sion Of any high explosive was local
lzed in one OF a multitude Of chambers
built with a view t. receiving -lch
visitors. Shafts in the earth under
Meath the whole offered further pro-
lection. In the center was q sort of
Wen in the midst of the wells of sand
bags where the occupants might en-
10Y immunity from anything eXccpt
bombs from the air.
But the French guns showered