Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-03-22
Troops Push Rapidly on
Through the Devastated
Country Abandoned by
the Teutons on the West
ern Fighting Front.
EVERY CONCEIVABLE
IMPEDIMENT USED
Retreating Forces De-
stroyed Roads and Bridges
and Took With Them
Every Vestige of Metal in
Villages Left Behind.
BY HENRY WOOD.

With the French Armies Advancing
from Noyon to Chauny and Tergnier,
March 21.-(By automobile to Paris,
March 2.)-Retreating German troops
sacked even supply houses of the
American relief commission to leave
the French civilian inhabitants utter
ly without food. They took every YES
tige of every metal in the French viii
lagos and their policy of insensate de-
struction marked practically every
house in the teEitory which they
evacuated.
But il the Germans hoped by utter
devastation to stem the tide of the
French advance against them, they
were disappointed. The French ad-
vance has been so rapid that in many
cases they have arrived at towns and
villages hours before the Germans
had planned to evacuate them.
FRENCH USE SYSTEM.
Nor is the French advance lacking in
methodical system. Behind the screen
of fast-moving cavalry and infantry
comes the engineers and road builders
to bridge craters and behind them, the
artillery awaits only the construction
of highways.
A few miles beyond Noyon today I
witnessed the rapidity with which the
French are overcoming every effort of
the enemy to check their advance
There the French columns encounter
ed a 50-foot hole-a crater on the
Noyon -Chauny road-exactly at the
spot best calculated to impede the ad-
vance.
The French infantry and cavalry i'm
mediately detoured to adjoining fields
and continued their forward move
ment without interruption. At the
same moment engineers began filling
the crater and bridging it. Another
detachment started at work on a road
winding around the place.
Almost before the last shovel of dirt
was thrown and the last nail driven,
batteries of the famous "Soixante
Quinze" guns went careening across
while to one side munitions and sup
ply trains dashed forward likewise.
The entire advance was resumed.
VILLAGES BEING BURNED.
Pushing forward with the army to-
day toward Chauny and Tergnier one
saw the entire horizon clouded with
the smoke of buring farms and villages.
The pathway of the German retreat
was traceable for 10 miles by such
pals of smoke.
Along the road back from Tergnier
and Noyon poured an unending streak
of refugees from these blazing farms
and villages. Nearly all were wo-
men-pitiful in their restitution, a few
scant pieces of clothing saved and
@ their ho inn
baby carriages, or wheel barrows with
tiny tots tucked therein.
This was a pitiful appearing stream
Pushing afoot along a road stretch
ing Is miles and constantly under
bombardment, the refugees faced a
driving winter rain. Although they
were homeless and hunger stricken,
with only the clothing on their backs or
a few small belongings to call their
own-despite all this, they were SUI
premely, radiantly happy. They We're
returning to France.
ALL TELL SAME Story
I talked to many of these today.
They declared the happiest moment of
their lives was when French cavalry
dashed into their village and chased
out the Germans.
The stories were all alike. For weeks
before the retreat started, the Ger
mems herded all inhabitants from VIII
lage to village. When the final mo-
ment came for the Germans to leave,
they sacked the houses. The soldiers
carried off ever. thing eatable-and
burned the villages before the eyes
of the refugees. Then they departed,
leaving the villagers homeless and
foodless.
A few hours later, when the Ger
mans believed the French troops had
arrived, they began Smelling the vii
lage they pillaged and left despite
their knowledge of thousands OF inno-
cent civilian inhabitants still there.
Seven thousand women and children
suffered this experience at Chauny
alone. The village was under bonn
bardment at the moment I arrived. The
French Red Cross crews had pushed
forward afoot and were carrying off
women and children wounded during
the shell fire.
ORCHARD TREES HEWN DOWN.
The German retreat has been
marked by insensate destruction. Aside
from the burning of farms and VIII
lagos, the blowing up Of church doors
and affairs and the like, their wanton
destruction was carried to such an ex-
tent that / walked through 20 miles OF
farms and fields where every orchard
tree had either been hewn down or, IL
the French arrived before this job of
destruction could be completed. the