The Washington herald., 1916-06-05
BATTLE FRONT VISIBLE
DISTANCE OF Is MILES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.

| what open field.
/ 1t Is spring now, and the woods on
Notre Damo are a mass of violets. The
trees are splintered, although on some of
the trunks can be read initials and pre-
war dates which indicate that this spot,
with its view up the valley to La Bassee
| in the north and beyond Arras in the
south. must have been a picnic grove.
The little shrine of Notre Dame stood on
| the exposed spur of the hill, beyond the
| woods, and a crossroads met nearby.
After most careful search. l could not
| find any trace Of where the chapel or the
road had been. Both. evidently, were
| targets for great howltzer shells and, in
| fact, the whole end of the hill has been
! literally blown away. Not even the
violets grow here. The whole area looks
at though it had been thickly covered
with California big trees all of which
some giant had pulled out by the roots
and taken away. Three hundred thou
sand shells. Gen. Joffre reported. were
fired against this spur in one day. when
! the battle opened a year ago, and that
was only the beginning Time after time
the French stormed the ridge only to
lose it, On the end is nothing but a
waste of torn earth. but in the woods be-
hind. where the violets are growing, are
scores of lines of trenches wrecked by
| shell fire. with barbed wire before them
showing how every yard of this key posi-
ton was fought for before the indomta bic
French infantry finally triumphed.
Bones Are MnnIIed.
On and above Notre Dame, in the
spring of last year, 10000 men died, and
when peace comes, or the battle front re-
cedes SO the hill can be occupied, rever-
| ent hands will gather here countless
| bones of French and German soldiers
None can tell them apart now, and it
was British officer who suggested that
France and Germany together raise a
| monument over them. There are many
| little cemeteries untouched by shell fire
on the rear OF the ridge. but toward the
end. where the fighting ragged more fierce
| ly, burial such Is was possible in those
| terrible days. was no protection against
| the unceasing storm of iron.
1t was the battle OF the present I
came to see, however. my thoughts
were distracted by that terrible hill
top. Notre Dame forms a spur in the
rear OF the British lines. having been
finally carried, with the villages at it's
| foot. by the French Tenth army, but
it is still savagely shelled on occasions
| by the German batteries across the lit
| tie valley, on the Nimy ridge, and we
had to take precautions against being
| seen before looking down on the battle
| front.
! The view was a wonderful one. In
! the north we could follow the first line
| trenches. outlined by the white chalk
parapets. beyond Loos. seven miles
! away. and above Loos with glasses
could be seen the outstanding land
marks of this mining region. immor-
! tallZed by the lighting last autumn
the Stag heaps and mining shafts above
! Ncrmel'es and Hulluch. the Hchenzol-
! lern redoubt. which is built into and
around a great Stag heap, and the
ruined mining works standing on top
! of Fossee s. where thousands of Ger
man and British soldiers died.
scene of PeacefuIneSs.
There was what the communicates call
| a fair amount of artillery activity" go
! ing on. and shells could be seen bursting
over the trench lines, while one occas-
ionally whizzed our way, but the domi-
mating feature OF the scene was its peace
| iulness. battle field one usually asso-
| ciates with open country. but here be-
fore us were many good-sZcd towns,
| Angres, Levin, Bully-Grenay, Grenay,
| LoOs, Lens, Givenchy, ard. far away, the
| city Of Arras itself. and in all the land
scape not a human being could be seen.
I The little red mining cottages. with their
/ slate roofs, seemed normal enough from
my perch until turned my glasses on
them. Then I could see that the i'm
! preston I had gained was a cruel de-
/ fusion. Every house is. more or less
smashed. but on none OF the towns men,
| toned has such a delugc of fire descended
/ as that which utterly wrecked Ypres or
literally-and considered literally the
| phrase is an awful one-wiped Souchez
| OF the map.
A series of great sheets OF flame from
Stag heap in the near foreground en-
| gagged our attention. THE Double Cras-
sier." my guido said They're letting of
some mines there; don't know whether
| they are ours or Boche." The Crassier,
where the lines are within a few yards
| of each other. is southeast of Loos. Just
south of the Loos- Bethune road, and
marks the southern end of the salient
| created by the advance of the British
last fall, so that here the lines run for
! some hundreds of yards east and west
| instead of north and south, the British
! holding the north side of the Stag heap,
the Germans the south. We were looking
at the rear of the German line as it
ran along the Crassier at the end of
! which the line turns south again.
Lone Target Disregarded.
The guns on both sides became more
| lively. the Germans pumping some shells
into village (deleted by the censor) just
!
| than shells or mines was that 1 saw a
| German, the only man except ourselves
visible for an hour. He was strolling
| about on the edge of wood just across
| the valley about a mile and a half from
| where we stood. and the British gun
ners, who must have seen him. disdained
| to waste fire on a lone target. We could
| see into the German line to a depth of
several miles, and suddenly, far in the
| rear (deleted by censor) a great eNplo-
| sion occurred. A lucky she'll or bomb
from one of the aeroplanes which con-
stantly secured overhead, pursued by
anti-warcraft shells. had evidently ex-
\ ploded an ammunition depot.
We left soon after. and the Germans
speeded our departure, as We crossed a
bit of open ground, with a shell that
! scared me mighty as 1t exploded We
| had been looking at fifteen miles of
trench fighting and artillery work, a view
| impossible to get elsewhere on the whole
| front. but the memory l shall carry
with me from Notre Dame is not of the
lighting of today. but that of a year ago,
and of the spring, and violets, and the
splnters of the little picnic grove with
| hearts and initials and dates-I saw one
| "191f"-carved on the pitted trunks by the
young people who lived in the extinct
town of Souchez, Ablain and Givenchy,