Valdez daily prospector., 1917-04-11
MANY DEAD
 LIE UNBUR|ED
GHAsTLY SIGHTS ALONG sOMME
Plagued by Rotting Bodies of Own

LONDON, April 11.-Now that the desperate episodes in the war, known in history as the battles of the Somme, have been definitely ended by the Ger man retreat from Arras to the Aisne, it has been possible more ieisurely to investigate the conditions which ex- ist along the German and English fronts just prior to the backward swing of the Hindenburg forces.
 When the retreat first began more than a month ago, the British swept over some old Somme positions held by the Germans and even the. most hurried glinpse of the evacuated trenches indicated how untenable they had become and why it was de- cided to run no risks of another allied offensive in this sector. Five miles of slogging along the old German lines in the vicinity of Bapaume today re- vealed a picture of ghastliness which may never be seen again in this or any other war. The front line was a long open dilapidated crumbling grave which disappeared in the mud at times but could be picked up furth- CT on by means of the bodies that marked the way.
 One realized with a shudder how the men doomed to live in these trenches had been plagued by their own dead. Such a ceremony as decent burial had been wholly out of the question and there was no means of conveying the bodies to the rear. It had been like passing through fiery rain from hades to bring up food and water to the living. So, the dead had been simply tossed out of the trenches only to be blown back again by an exploding shell. Some times they came back in fragments for there were arms and legs, feet and hands and heads everywhere.
 Occasionally graves had been dug in the sides of the trench itself, but the dead could not rest there. At frequent intervals the inevitable skel- eton hands and feet protruded from the trench walls.
 Grim sights this war has had for the men wno passed up and down these trenches during the long and bitter nights of winter.
 The artillery on both sides has kept up continuous roar for the past three or four months. There has been no set battle in progress, but the gun ners are merely exchanging their daily hymns of hate" The hideous reve- lations of the German trenches, how ever, gives the gruesOme answer to what the guns were doing. In some places there were veritable mangled masses of what were once huban be- ings. Neither by day nor by night had the Germans rest. Their barbed wire, in which they had always plac- ed great reliance, had been swept completely away over thousands of yards and they dared not venture out to repair it.
 Communication trenches leading to the front lines, were wiped out and it had been necessary to bring up sup plies and relief at night over a coun- try blown into endless shell holes, many of which were filled to such a depth with water that men were oft times drowned Tn them. White bits of broad tape could be seen here and there attached to the iron posts. These were for the purpose of guiding the men up to the front line.
 These pathways over the fields of death were also literally strewn with fragments of human bodies. Some of the dead had the looks of mummies. One of the fallen soldiers had his right arm thrown over his rifle as if his last impulse was to protect this wea- pon of defense against the constant shelling. But there was no defense. Some pieces of metal thrown about by the high explosive shells must have weighed at least ten pounds; the re- suit of hitting a man with ten ID. bullet can easily be imagined.
 At one point in the trenches was the lower half of German officer, identified by his boots and leggings. His legs were standing upright in the mud.