Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 19??-1918, 1915-10-20
(By United Press Leased wire.)

BY VIM. p. Simms.
Copyright 1915 by the United
Press.)
Paris, Oct. 20.--In the middle of
the Champagne battlefield my first
impression was that Judgment day
had come; that / had been left be-
hind to roam the disrupted earth
alone.
AS far as the eye could see, along
the undulated stretch, 1t was q vast
lpitted waste OF chalk, with snags and
annihilated forests sticking up gaunt
and white, covered with dust against
the sky line, and with arms. legs and
other fragments OF dead men lying
stinking like common garbage on a
titanic dump.
This was the work Of the French
artillery. Here Germans had been.
Here many were stilI--rotting.
Hell's furies seemed to have been
forestalled and outdone. For three
days was permitted to wander over
this ground recently won by the
French. Ihad a talk previous to my
trip with many at the war office re-
garding the efficacy Of the French
shell fire. but even thus prepared, and
despite what I hitherto had observed
personally. ! was totally surprised by
what I saw.
Over many square miles practically
no vegetation was left. Even the
rabbits and rats had not escaped.
Almost 100000 shells had been
fired into this area in three days, dig
ging pits from FIVE to rs feet deep.
the latter 1870 to $50 feet across.
AS result of this concentrated fire
the whole country was covered with
a white powder.
A general told me that the German
troops were so demoralized that
droves OF prisoners the French took
were sent to the rear without any
other escort than single guide; that
many were almost insane for days
Numerous French regiments have
been trying to clean up the battle
field ever since. but without seeming
ito make headway, so vast is the un-
dertaking. Their excavations bring
to light daily fresh war stores OF
lhuddles OF dead Germans, as II this
were some new Pompeii
What 1 took first to be the stump
of shell-torn bush turned out to
be crisped, red hand on human
arm protruding from caved-in
trench. What seemed to be an old
sack had human foot inside. A dis
colored blue sweater had a mans
trunk within it.
! Under the French fire trenches be-
came graves for the living. while the
graves of earlier victims were ex-
posed to the air.
This man made earthquake shows
what is now necessary If an advance
is to be made, Without such an
earthquake advancing infantry would
be paralyzed by German guns form
erly used against Galician forts.
The Germans had woven entire
forests with barbed wire, under cover
of which they had dug trenches which
zig-zagged eight feet deep along Their
entire line.
Their front was covered by a null
titude of machine guns, many with
four-inch steel turrets with revolving
ltops-all save the tops embedded II
the ground. These held each so
millimeter rapid fire cannon and tt
serve 1t three men, who, the French
say, were locked In.
personally inspected captured
turret the doors of which were fas
tened with chains outside. The cap
tors declared that three unwoundet
but unconscious Germans were found
inside.
This was what the French had t.
go against. The general command
ing the French Fourth army told me
1t took two months to prepare this
part Of the attack. He constructed
about 500 kilometers of new trenches
some of them wide enough for two
horses to pass through, together witt
many new railroads and dirt roads
I personally rode along the new dir
road. 13 kilometers long. laid so thai
the troops and conveys could pass
day and night, unseen owing to cuts
and improvised hedges.
When all was ready the artillery
cut loose.
The battle, which took two months
to prepare, was practically over in
one day. as the subsequent fighting
was really settling down process
Local attacks and counter-attacks are
still occurring, but the original re