Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-06-13
Watching a Great Artillery Battle
BY HERBERT COREY

general officer who accompanied AT o'clock
- the guns begin"
We squashed breathessly through wet and muddy
woods paths that painstakingly behind hill
locks and clumps Of bushes. Sometimes open glade
presented itself. Then turned in our tracks and
circumnavgated the opening. has been care
fully chosen. Walking in the Forest of the Arsonne
and the points on the horizon. Under
foot the forest is loose and sloppy The soupy mud
spurted boots
minutes the civilian members of the expedi-
ton completely lost Sometimes we walked
boldly wide spaces. Then descend into
trenches. One road encountered was labeled quite
safe. The road-an equally wide. equally wet
road. running in the apparent directionwas out
of BY some legerdemain the Germans were able
stretches o Smelling o these stretches
impaired efficiency. painted loudly behind the
officers. The Russian correspondent took off his cap
and perspired shamelessly His is large and very
bald.
Down here" said the general officer
Fifty years old, this general officer, and lively
a boy. lively than most boys His eyes shone
crnkled his face in the most friendly way when
he laughed. which often. His perched jaunty
side of his head and he switched at weeds with
his tremendous walker, this general ofncer.
would pause tell story, and we would thank
fully stop and listen to it. Then he would De on at
full speed We splashed after him. our feet slipping
things that turned in the mud.
What called down here" the line Of COM
munication trenches They narrow and at
times very deep. Sometimes they burrowed through
the shoulder of hill and sometimes 1t was twenty
feet to sunlight, and sometimes stopped as we
walked lest the alert German caps above the
battlements. All the trenches muddy. When we
met soldiers coming passed them by half-turn
motion. We climbed Shiny cleft in the hill by
putting our hands on either side. That climb would
have bothered goat, it was 50 steep and slippery
Here is the balcony" said the general officer. THE
box seat. You shall the fight from here"
We had been invited to watch the French shell the
German trenches. We do not know that the Smelling
arranged for especial benefit. We preferred
to ask. All knew was that the Smelling would
begin at 4 o'clock, that If in seats
would it, The balcony" to which the general Of
fcer referred artillery observation post We
raised curtain of sackng and stepped into cell cut
the side the hill A narrow slit across 1t
horizonways. and there rough bench and place
on which to rest our elbows. The curtain behind US
pinned tight shut. If it had been raised some
German watcher might have seen the light shine
through the cell from the trench behind. Then
The trenches in one angle of which along
the face of a shallow hill Across the valley
other hill, identical in slope Both slopes bare
and brown with blackened patches here and there
Once they had been we'll wooded but the shells had
the For the most part they persisted
only shredded and shattered trunks.
No whole remained either slope. Across the
valley heap of broken stone in which 1t was
quite impossible recognize what had been pretty
village before the Germans came. "cut-banks'
the bottom of the valley walked. wearing blue
uniforms They French soldiers. Sometimes they
places
broken by inequality. Across these places they
ran. The Germans fired at them, down the HILL
How far are German trenches?" asked.
Perhaps 900 yards" was the reply.
They were that the binoculars not
We sat there at ease in the dark cell
the hillside and traced the German trenches the
other slope. The lowest line French. There the
invader being slowly pushed back Very slowly.
These trenches had changed a material foot in
months. Farther the hill the German trenches
zigzag and kinky. Not two feet of open trench was
they hooked and angled Yet they were as plain
to the though they had been drawn with pen
Some difference in the subsol accounted for
this.
do you see where we have shelled?" asked the
officer.
That whole slope of the other hill covered with
pockmarks where shells had exploded. Between them
a faint tracery of spring beginning show.
Not sound could be heard in this forest of
gonne except venturesome bird that whstled it
brought straw for nest it had blithely located in the
fork o a shattered tree Some one somewhere, gave
a signal Perhaps 1t only the long hand of
the watch had the the hour On either
side-back of us-guns began to thump. On the other
hillside bursts of earth and smoke told where
shells landing.
At first the the guns seemed scattered
methodica precise. 1t seemed the French were firing
very slowly. 1 thoroughly surprised when found
nv hands cupped about Washburnes ear and realized
that unless 1 could understand me- The
swapping of the guns had mounted into a roar. We
knew that the Germans firing back, because we
could shells whistle overhead see them burst
But we could not hear their We did
hear shell that burst thirty feet from u.s.
We only knew of it when officer spoke.
distant slope of the hill was disappearing from
sight under cloud Of dust and smoke The afternoon
shone full on it, that could plainly see the
clean-cut belt picked out by the shells At first
had been able to see them strike the lips the
German trenches. Sometimes 1t though they
in from the nature Of the explosion Later there
just dull band of tan black drawn across the
hill 1t mounted higher shells fell Then the
French guns stopped short 1t a silence that
followed, for the German shells still breaking
But 1t was almost silence. After a moment
we stopped shouting We abashed as peonle ara
talking in church during a pause in the hynon
I'VE give the Germans ten shells to one" said
general officer, splashed out Of the trenches
mo many they send us. we can send them
for one"