The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-02
'VERDUN COURIERS OF. BATTLES
Messengers Take Lives In Hands In Thrilling Trips
 Tn Zone of Fire

<. Paris. Aug. 2-The unexampled eondittonsa of fighting before verdur have developed q new type of soldier talled 'sthe couriers of verdun." They are the men who maintain communi- 7cation between the troops in the midst of the melees and officers command Ing from the rear, The battlefield into which they dart with orders or after information is q desolated zone where nothing but thick smoke, some- tlmes black, sometimes white, gives Appearance Of life; excepting during the brief time of an infantry attack, lt is to all appearances deserted; the oharpest eye discovsrs no movement ' bf humanity. The earth is every where f,irrowed by freshly stirred parth. but no one sees the hand that Utirred 1t.
 Occasionally form Is seen going over this desert land something after the manner of a rabbit, bounding into sight out of tho herbs and above unev- en ground to disappear again; leaping from obstacle to obstacle, from ditch to ditch, from shell hole to shell ho,e < a9 it approaches the front line, at times vaulting. at others crawling, and Sometimes kept motionless for Z epnsiderable periods by showers of Ifpjectiles sent over from the other He of the line for his personal bene- tdG This Is the messengSr of modern 6attle; he was never nofie needed nor more useful than at verdun and the type will probably bear the name for years to come of "the courier of ver- dun"
 ~ Not telephone line can resist the iiacessant bombardment that digs up the soil and levels all field work along the whole line in front of this fortress; consequently to assure communication Between the front and the rear IS a difficult problem. Communications 6y carrier pigeons are very uncertain &11d optical signals are insufficient for various reasons Nothing Is certain Excepting the man himself and to transmit information and / orders across that beaten held requires some thing extraordinary in the way of man. He must be an athlete with good lungs and above all, he must have . stout heart
 The courier of verdun is unable to use the communicating trenches where he would be out of sight of the enemy because that line is crowded always ! with soldiers going to or from the front line. with wounded being carried back. with men of the commissary de- pArtment carrying provisions to the men on guard. That is too slow 6 route for the courier of verdun; he must take his chances of being sight a and hit--above ground.
 The first formidable obstacle to pass 1e the zone that is beaten. by drum r Ire" where 8-inch. 6-inch and 4-inch shells are bursting with formidable 4 explosions, sending showers of shrap. nel over the whole zone. In going through this ordeal, the courier see. everywhere the spectacle of death stumbIes over corpses. sometimes run. into cloud of poison yapor before he has crossed it; once through. he i, within range of the smaller German 4 guns and the quick frers.
 During the whole distance of a mile or two miles, according to the posi- ton his nerves are at the highest ten z sion, with his mind on the end of hi mission and at the same time on tn. obstacles that are multiplied each in v stant in his path.
 Some of these couriers get .hrougl untouched, others crawl back to tn, starting point bruised or maimed Some of them never come back to tel the story of their heroic effort
 The couriers of verdun maintained communication from the rear witl 7 the heroic troops under the oroers O Commandant Raynal-a company O 143nd infantry and a machine gul section of the 63rd--who held tn, Fort of vaux several days agains overwhelming numbers of assailants They were all Volunteers selected from considerable number of mer who offered themselves for the dan gerous mission. One of them was { boy of the contingent of 1916 of child ian aspect, who every time volunteer were asked for was the first man tt the front. i"He had scarcely return ed from one of these perilous mis si0ns." said his captain, when h. pleaded to be sent out again." An ether, literally riddled by fragment Rf . shell that had burst in his path had Sdragged himself back. though un shbIe to rise to his feet. saluted his col $nel and said: Colonel, am don, for, but have got enough left in D1'