New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-17

now merely collection OF smell era
tiers. There was nothing resembling
a trench among them, but only what
might be crazy pattern OF burrows
ploughed by drunken farmland Tor
last years planting. OF barbed wire
entanglements there were only few
broken strands scattered indiscrimi-
nately over the ground.
Village a SHAMELESS.
In one place there was the remnant
of an armored shelter for a machine
gun. It's walls of reinforced concrete
a foot and a half thick lay in hopeless
confusion, while a small section of
fight of steps led to a cavern filled
with water by the recent rains. This
was on the edge of Domperre, and
we asked where the village was.
"You are in it," we were told.
On my right was a single section of
what had been the wall of house. IL
was less than four feet high by twice
as long. On my left was row of
eight tree trunks standing about
seven feet high. They had been cut
off cleanly as though by steam saw
and the ivy still twined around the
stumps. That piece of wall and those
II had been a German fortress before
July !, and the French guns had wiped
it out of existence TO save the lives
of French soldiers. The village is now
level with the ground. II cannot be
distinguished from the fields that sur
round it.
Destruction Complete.
| have seen battered remnants of
many French and Belgian villages left
after a German bombardment, but
never was destruction so complete as
that which was wrought by the French
cannon preparing the path for their
soldiers
Later in the day looked down from
the heights above Vaux on the former
site of Curlu. Before the war Curlu
was a larger village than Dompierre.
To-day Dompierre is larger than Curlu,
for Dompierre has piece of wall four
feet by eight, while Curlu is a small
red patch of brick dust.
From the same point | saw the de-
struction of Mount st. Quentin begin.
II, too, was a German fortress and so
must fall to save the lives of French
soldiers. From the Vaux heights !
could see it with glasses across the
n
with pointed spire was standing in the
midst Of little collection of red brick
cottages. As looked a French shell fell
upon a house facing the church on the
right. | saw the roof of the house
crumple and fall toward the centre,
and wondered what had happened. Then
slowly and majestically the great
plume of a black and dun-colored cloud
rose high above the steeple of the
church, spread out and settled slowly
down. And the house no longer ex-
listed.
Houses Disappear.
While | watched saw three shells
fall on Mount st. Quentin and three
houses disappear. ! understood then
those curious gaps in streets, and knew
that when the French soldiers crossed
the Somme there would be no German
fortress at Mount ST. Quentin to bar
their progress.
But before we went 10 Vaux, which
is on the northern part of the battle
front, we plodded on from Dompierre
through Becquincourt, toward the
mathematical centre of the battle. The
dav before the French had taken three
thousand wards of German trenches
north oil the DOillltf anu a. VIZ
our visit Smelling was particularly
heavy in that region. The Germans
were endeavoring to counter-attack TO
retake the trenches, while the French
kent barrier of shells before the
Germans. holding them in their lines.
Black Cloud Obscures Ground.
That piece of the arc was solid
black cloud. from which issued from
time TO time the rapid hammer of ma
chine guns forcing their staccato above
the deep boom of the cannon.
On the south the French were pre-
paring q road for their soldiers TO take
more ground near Deniecourt the next
dav and there. also. the bombardment
was particularly violent. We went on
INTO the fields, following a difficult
nath among shell holes. The entire
surface of the plateau had been sys-
tcmatically deluged with shells by the
French in their advance. Craters
twenty feet in diameter lay in mathe-
lines, their rims separated by
twelve inches. 1t was as II you GOV
cred the top Of your dining table with
saucers whose edges were just out oi
touch. xI 49,
Meanwhile, as we went forward, the
Germans, who suspected the French OF