Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-12-17
GERMANS SEND
100 SHELLS EACH
DAY INTO TOWN
300 of 5000 Population of Loss
en-Gohelle Left: Many
Butchered

| Loos-en-Gohelle. Pas de Calais,
France. Dec. 1-.-CCorrespondenc of
The Associated Press) Three hun
dred only of the 5000 inhabitants of
Loos-en-Gohelle were still in the
town when the Germans took 1t in
| October last year. A hundred of
them escaped through the French
lines, the rest lived just ten days
short of a year under foreign domi-
nation and under the direct admins
tration of the Able Champagne, the
parish priest, made mayor in spite of
himself by the German Kommanda-
tur.
During all that time the town re-
/ ceived an average of 100 shells a
day
Loos-en-Gohelle, which should not
be confounded with Loos in the de-
partment du Nord near Lille, was on
the line of the great race between the
Germans and the allies toward the
lroad to Calais and the sea last year.
The Uhlans came October 4, followed
by four regiments of the Prussian
Guard. A battalion of French in
fantry sent against them four days
later was obliged to retire before SUI
perior numbers. after a violent fight.
The Germans then began to fortify
the position and occupied 1t in force.
The Able Compagne, who with 200
of his parishioners was liberated by
the British troops in the recent bat
tie of Loos, affirms that the first
measure of the Germans was to shoot
seven civilians, among whom were
two men 80 years old and one 10; the
others were from so to 40. Four of
the men were farmers; the reason for
their execution was never made clear;
what they did was simply this: they
| fn hnf ferl,t
and while doing so were caught by
the German sentinels ana held as
prisoners until shot. These four were
buried in the Rue Huilluch in graves
dug by n miner that the Germans had
left all night tied to a tree before
two other victims were buried in
ditch in holes dug by the same
miner.
Held Responsible
"The majority o; the population
remaining in LooS at the time We're
women, children, a few old men and
six or seven valid men, besides a
dozen or so of invalids. The men who
were strong enough to work were en-
ployed by the Germans in dismount-
| ing all the machinery of the mines.
taking off the copper and loading it
upon cars. The moment of their ar
rival in Loos the Germans called upon
me and demanded at the point of
revolver where the mayor and his as
sistants were. When l told them
that all the authorities of the town
! had left, they said:
You shall be the sole authority
! here; you shall be mayor.
| II replied that my religious func-
tions in the eyes of French law were
/ incompatible with municipal respon-
/ sibility. They declared that it did
L. l. II 4 i
me responsible for all that might
happen in the village; for any dis
covery of concealed arms. for any
Telephone that might have been hid
/ den, for any luminous signals, etc. l
| had no choice but to accept the dan
gerous honor and have done what
could for my compatriots during the
period of occupation, with two Ger
man soldiers at my door with fixed
bayonets all the time acting as sent
inels. I was unable to go out more
than three times a week, Sundays,
Tuesdays and Thursdays, to visit the
population, accompanied by a Ger
man interpreter.
Levied Contributions
"a short time after the Germans
arrived they notified me that a con-
| tribution of war of 7,s-o francs had
been levied upon the town of Loos.
Since the population remaining in the
town was mostly of the poorer class,
1 had no idea where l could raise such
sum. We finally decided to make it
up from portions of the relief allow
ance made by the director of the
| mines of Lens to the women of
modified miners. We finished pay
| ing the 1000 francs August IA, 1915.
| During the long months that we
| lived under German domination our
| life was most difficult; provisions be-
came rarer and rarer, until at the be-
ginning of May we were on the point
| of dying of hunger. Each person
had to live six days on the half of
loaf of bread weighing 3 pounds. The
situation was desperate. / succeeded
in collecting quietly a few bushels of
wheat that remained in the neighbor-
| ing granares, and my parishioners
ground 1t in their coffee mills. We
lived on this until the American Re
lief Commission finally came 10 our
aid. Later, / was called to Lens,
with the mayors of the different
towns of the region who had ar
ranged to supply us with 100 grams
of -four, sufficient to make $50 grams |
of bread. per day, per head.
Our difficulties, however, were
not at an end; as soon as it became |
known that we had flour with which |
to make good bread, we were obliged |
to defend our improvised bakery in |
the farm house of. Mademoiselle Petit |
against the German soldiers. We
finally secured from the Kommanda- |
tur a sign: Civil bakery; entrance
prohibited to soldiers
During the bombardments the |
worst hours were from 10 o'clock in |
the morning until noon and from
O'Clock in the afternoon until sunset. |
After the intensive bombardment of
May. Sth, we were obliged to remove