Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-08-02
"VERDUN COURiERS"
NEW TYPE OF SOLDIERS
DEVELOPED BY BATTLE

Correspondence of Associated Press.l
Paris, July i. The uneXampleu
conditions of fighting before Nerdun
have developed a new type Of soldier
called the courierS of yerdun. They
are the men who maintain communi-
cation between the troops in the amidst
of the melees and officers commanding
from the rear The battlefield into
which they dart with orders or after
Information is a desolated zone where
nothing but thick smoke, sometimes
black, sometimes white, gives appear
ance of life; excepting during the brief,
time of an infantry attack, is to al!
appearance deserted; the sharpest eye
discovers no movement of humanity.
The earth is everywhere furrowed by
freshly stirred earth, but no one sees
the hand that stirred it.
Occasionally a form is seen going
over this desert land something after
the manner of rabbit, bounding into
sight out of the herbs and above I'M
even ground to disappear again; leap
ing from obstacle to obstacle, from
ditch to ditch, from shell hole TO shell
hole as it approaches the front line, ali
times vaulting, at others crawling, and
sometimes kept notiorless for consid-
cradle periods ny showers of projec-
tiles sent over from the other side OF
! the line for his personal benefit. This
| is the messenger of modern battle; he
| was never more needed nor more use
| full than at Verdun and the type Will
| probably bear the name for years to
come of the courier of Verdun."
| Not a telephone line can resist the
| incessant bUmbardment that digs up
| the soil and levels all field work alons
| the whole line in front of this fortress:
consequently 10 assure communica-
| tions between the front and the rear is
| difficult problem. Communications
! by carrier pigeons are very uncertain
and optical signals are Insufficient for
various reasons. Nothing is certain
excepting the man himself and u
| trans ,mit information and orders across
that beaten field requires something
| extraordinary in the way of man. He
must be an athlete with good lungs
and above all, he must have a stous
| 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 car
red back, with men Of the commissary
department carrying provisions to the
men on guard. That is too slow a
route for the courier of Verdun; he
must take his chances of being sighted
and hit-above ground.
| The first formidable obstacle to pass
| l. tIn$ l. Hno hXr Iry1
fire." where eight-inch, six-inch and
four-inc shells are bursting with
formidable explosions, sending showers
Of shrapnel over the whole zone. In
going thru this ordeal the courier sees
everywhere the spectacle Of death.
stumbles over corpses, sometimes runs
into a cloud OF poison rapor before
he has crossed it; once thru he is
within range of the smaller German
guns and the quick ,firers.
| During the whole distance OF a mile
or two miles, according to the position.
his nerves are at the highest tension,
with his mind on the end Of his mission
and at the same time on the obstacles
that are multiplied each instant in his
path.
Some Of these couriers get thru un-
touched, others crawl back to the
starting point bruised or MANNED.
Some Of them never come back to tell
the story Of their heroic effort.
The couriers Of Verdun maintained
communication from the rear with the
heroic troops under the orders OF
Commandant Raynal-a company OF
1920 infantry and a machine gun Sec
ton of the Fifty third-who held the
Fort Of vaux several days against
overwhelming number of assailantss
j They were all volunteers selected from
1 a considerable number Of men who Of
fered themselves for the dangerous