Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-20
By WILLIAM PHILIP sIMMs


Champagne battlefield my nrst impress
sion was that Judgment Day had come;
that had been left behind to roam the
disrupted earth alone.
AS far as the eye could see undulated
one vast pitted waste OF chalk. with
snags of annihilated forests sticking up,
gaunt and white and covered with dust
against the skyline and with arms and
legs and other fragments OF dead men
living like common garbage on titanic
dump.
This was the work OF the French ar
tillery. Here the Germans had been.
Here many were still-rotting.
Helrs furies seemed to have been fore
stalled and outdone.
For three days was permitted TO wan
der over the ground recently won by the
French.
I had talked previously with many ON
GERS and men concerning the efficacy of
the French shellfre, but even thus pre-
pared, and despite what had hitherto
observed personally, I was totally sur
prised by what 1 saw.
over tens Of square miles virtually no
vegetation was left. Even the rabbits
and rats had not escaped.
100000 SHELLS FIRED.
Almost 100000 shells were hurled into
this area in three days, digging pits from
5 TO IS feet deep, the latter 100 to 100 feet
across. As a result of this concentrated
fire the whole country was covered with
a white powder.
A general told me the German troops
were so demoralized that droves of pris-
oners the French took were sent to the
rear without other escort than single
guide; that many were almost insane for
days.
Numerous entire French regiments
have been trying to clean up the battle
field ever since the struggle, but with
the undertaking.
Excavations bring to light daily fresh
war stores or huddles of purifying Ger
mans as IL this were some new Pompeii.
What l took at first to be the stump
of a shell-torn bush turned out to be
crisp red hand on a human arm pro-
truding from a caved-in trench. What
seemed to be an old sack had human
foot inside. A discolored blue sweater
had a mans trunk within 1t.
This nan-inade earthquake shows what
is now necessary If an advance is to be
made Without the earthquake the ad-
vancing infantry would be paralyzed by
the German guns formerly used against
the Gallo forts as the French soldier
clerks and farmer boys struggled with
the enemys barbed-wire defenses
The Germans had woven entire forests
with this barbed wire. under cover of
which they had dug trenches which zig
Jagged eight feet deep along the entire
line.
GUNS IN STEEL TURRETs.
a
of machine guns and many four-inch,
steel turrets with revolving tops, all save
the tops embedded in the ground. These
held each a O-millimeter rapid-fire can
non, and to serve 1t, three men who. the
French say. were locked in.
personally inspected a captured turret
the doors OF which were fastened with
that three unwounded but unconscious
Germans were found inside.
The general commanding the French
4th Army told me that II took two
months to prepare his part of the attack.
He constructed about 500 kilometres of
new trenches, some wide enough for two
horses TO pass, and many new railroads
and dirt roads.
I personally. rode along a new dirt road
10 kilometres long laid so that troops
and conveys could pass, day and night,
without being seen owing to cuts and
improvised hedges.
When all was ready the artillery cut
loose.
The battle which took two months to
prepare was virtually over in one day,
as subsequent hghting was really set
tling-down process. Local attacks and
counter-attacks are still occurring. but
the original result has not been mate
rally changed.
CANNON FVERWHERE
The cannon seem TO touch wheels.
There are batteries everywhere, their
crews active in correcting ranges on new
enemy positions. in response 10 telephone
calls from hidden observers near the
German lines or wireless commands
from specks lowering in the sky.
Aeroplanes on both sides are exceed
ingly busy photographing the opposing
trenches and plotting them to scale.
Air duels are almost OF hourly occur
renee, but usually result IN the invaders s
return TO his own lines, as he has more
important work TO do than 10 bring down
an enemy aviator.
The French claim their advance was
gained with small losses but considering z
conditions, even had the Gallic losses been
enormous, the Champagne victory would
have been cheap. The country was not
surer than ever that they are fully equal
10 the mightiest blow Germany has 20
offer
NY personal impression is that the line
will stick about where II Is all winter,
as indicated by the statement OF the gem
erai / talked with. TO the effect that much
preparation Is necessary TO score an ad-
vance under present conditions.
One. therefore. is inevitably led TO ask
the ouaaftons sfKVhen xiill the war and -