Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-03-23
Germans Lay Waste 10 Covn-
try; Napoleon Tower at Ham
With Walls Forty Feet
Thick Is Blown to Bits,
FIFTY GIRLS DEP0RTEO
FROM ONE SMALL TOWN
Declare KaiSer'S Troops De-
termined to Wreck Eyely
Cottage Tree and RuShi
Break Agricultural Tools,
10y MORNING JouHHA, spse,AL LEASED wrssl

! day, March al (via Paris March -,
| From u Staff Correspondent OF
! the Associated Press.) .)-Destructon
J and desolation are salient features
along the track of the German re
| treat between the important towns ot
Roye and Ham and beyond. The
! correspondent has accompanied the
French army in the advance over al
| area which since the beginning of the
! German rctrograde movement has
reached total of approximately $50
! square miles. Following closely on
| the heels of the retiring Germans, the
! correspondent passed through many
! villages whose ashes still were smoul-
dering, all having been fired by Ger
! man troops belonging to the Seven
teenth army corps.
I Road functions MCnaccd.
| Large towns such as Roye, Nesle
land Ham suffered less than the viii
Ilages. All road functions were mined
and blown up, leaving gaping chasms
! large enough to contain siX-storY
! house. Although in many towns the
! houses outwardly are intact, giving al
most an unchanged aspect, they
proved to be merely skeletons whose
contents had been ruthlessly de-
stroyed with picks and shovels
! In the country districts the devasta-
ton everywhere is most complete,
! both inside and out. Old peasants,
/ with the women and children, who
for some time had been gathered by
the Germans in the large centers, at
ltempted today, after htv,rg been iih-
Grated by the French and British, to
find traces of their former homes.
N, III n
4 Gcbris Their agricultural implements
and machinery all had been broken,
all fruit trees sawed through close to
the ground and grain and grass seeds
trampled This destruction, added to
the previous confiscation of all do
nestle animals and poultry in the oc-
! cupied French provinces during the
last thirty months caused many to
give way to despair, but JOY over the
return Of the French eventually doml-
mated all other feelings.
No Meat for over One Year.
For the present most of the refu-
gees left homeless by the Germans in
the reoCCupied region are subssting
on what remains in their possession OF
the last American relief consignment
while awaiting organization of a
French Commissariat In Ham, one
of thescmost advanced and important
towns retaken, the correspondent was
the first stranger to arrive after the
French troops entered. The inhabi-
tants, many of whom still were there,
invariably asserted they had had no
meat for eighteen months and that
whenever they raised chickens or rab-
bits for their own consumption they
were taken by the Germans, who paid
for them in bonds instead of money
Napoleon Tower shattered.
The greatest feature, the famous
tower in which Napoleon III was in
Carcerated with walls forty feet thick,
was blown to fragments before the
Germans departed. All German sll
yer money was taken away and re-
placed by paper The Inhabitants
state that fifty young women and
tgirls were depOrted, ostensbly to
work for the Germans at Maubeuge.
Similar conditions prevail in other
towns The villages are mere deserts.
The inhabitants say the Germans be"
fore leaving declared they would lay
waste the whole country, so as not to
; permit the advancing allied troops to
obtain any benefit from it. French
soldiers returning from reconnais-
sances affirm this program has been
fully carried out, not a cottage, or
bush, being loft whole.
Retreat Stop Unknown.
Where the retreat will stop appears
to be unknown even to German pris-
oners, who make widely varying state
mcnts. All, however, agree. that Field
Marshal Won Hindenburg is the leader
of the whole German policy. Their
respect for his name is shown by the
} fact that even after they are taken
prisoner they stand attention when
ever his name is mentioned.