Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-05-07
BATTLE OF VERDUN
MADDEN|NG CHAOS
1t Is Roaring Tornado, in Which
Soldier Is Insignificant
Atom.
MIND SEEMS TO LEAVE BODY
Wounded French Officer Tells Of
Awful Days While Steel
Was Flying. 1

FAIRS, May An officer recover
ing from a wound received at verdun
early in April to-day told the story
Of that Homeric struggle as follows:
More things happened in one day in
that inferno down there than during
tho whole siege Of Troy And still.
what has each OF seem Nothing
or To" much \ roaring tornado In
which you are an insignificant atom.
You do not realize the magnitude OF
the affair
Ibid YOU sec the hattie Of the User?
Yes: Well. that was nothing. And
Champagne? No? y mere child's play,
one must have seen NauX, Dauaumont
and Mort Hommc. these struggles OF
Titans. Horrible Dreadful,
The memory Of those awful days is
still too fresh to permit me to speak
coherently. For four days I sat on
a slope with my company. -crouching
in tho snow. During those four cen
turtles. how many tons OF steel, I
wonder passed over our heads Roth
sides were firing inccssantly-suns OF
all calibers.
THUNDERING, EAR-SpLITTING.
MADDENING CHAOS
"You know. YOU can tell such kinds
N. III,
down there YOU could not IT was,no
longer succession of noise. hut
roaring. laundering, car-splittinE. mad
dcninE chaos. You no longer realized
what YOU heard or saw: your brain
simply could not record the impres-
sions.
IF YOU looked out. YOU did not see
where there was wood five minutes
ago, there was now completely RACED
stretch OF level ground. not a single
tree left
II tell YOU. one realized nothing.
not even If ii was day or night !
racked my brain in vain to remember
time and place and when the nurse.
the first morning | came here. asked
me where and when I had been
wounded.
1T seems TO me as IL the mind, re-
alizing its own powerlessness, gives up
in despair. abandons the poor body,
which moves by force OF habit and
acts by reflex movements.
Then there is the dreadful tempta-
ton to give in to the craving for sleep,
tho brother OF death. The men may
do SO. but an officer. never. 1t is
a dreadful struggle. To sleep. To
he able to sleep In the midst of this
bowling tempest. this roaring. scream
ing, maddennE pandcmonium which
seems like tho death cry OF whole
aGonizcd world. No, you must not
do so. .-+
Your body remains in its place mo-
tipnlcss, and only way back in the
deepest recess Of your brain small
hickcrinc namc Of will power stiTl
burns low and II is this which en-
ahlcs you. when the decisive moment
comes. when man must fight man In
dreadful hand to hand combat, to jump
t" your feet. to leap forward VITA
eager eyes and willing hand. 1t is
instinct more than intellect, but it is
also hatred. Unsuitable. sacred hatred,
Aside from that everything has
ceased 10 exist. To me the entire
world. during those hours which
seemed longer than all the rest OF my
life. consisted Of the Fort Of Vaux
on its HILL surrounded by thunder,
and tho village in the mud OF the hol.
low below. II WAS even less than that
1t was merely tho little place where
We were sheltered. and all humanity
was To me only my man. my company,
who looked at me with confident. grave
eyes.
"My company! where arc they nowe
cannot hear to think of them
VILLAGES SWALLOWED UP
~ PRS AND CRATEHS or FIRE
What men they were. II ever. a
body "f men was entitled to he called
heroes. they were. To hold out there,
as they did was wonderful Imagine
cntirc villages swallowed up in pjts
and cratcrS Of fire. which suddenly
burst open. Glorious they were, MY
men In snow. in mud. their throats
rarrhcd. their stomachs empty. they
waited. The trees fell all around like
grass before scythe. The trench
was blown up. they jumped into tho
hole cluns I" the edges and held out!
Their the ioches. convinced that no
living being could have passed through
that hell. began TO advance. We did
not recognize The friendly voices OF
our own machine guns in this chaos.
tack. tack, tack. tack-but the gray
human forms were mcwn down as were
the trees before. They fell in hcaps,
but the moro we NOV down. the more
come forward The whole earth "a
gray with thcE.
Those, who arc still standing are
leaning against the heaps OF their
own dead until they. too. go down.
Then tie air tremulcs with loud ex-
piosi"ns which tear great gaps 10,
their lines. Things are flying through
space among dense clouds OF smoke.
and suddenly there are no Germans
left The attack has crushed itself
against rock. 1850
"But new attacks follow the In
fernal noise swells. roars. howls still
louder.
Hours pass, hut YOU never notice IT,
time has ceased to exist among the
clouds OF smoke. vapors OF gas and up.
hcavals oC earth a
our little corner was the wnose
world to us. To understand the orders
we got TO keep the commander posted
Oh our position was all We could do.
We had no iGea OF what was happen.
ing right or left OF us.
we had beena,oid to hold the post.
ton at all costs. and We did so!.@+- g, 8 s