The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-08-14


place to Fight and Die.
[By Henry Wood, United Press Stan
! Correspondent
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES ON
THE AISNE, July 25 (by maiD LIE
Chemin des Danes" the historic
Ladies Road" is no longer a place
for ladies'. 1t is only a place for men
men who know how to fight and
die. The daily battles now raging
along the Chemin des Danes equal in
intensity and fierceness the historic
combats of last year at Verdun.
| These Chemfn des Danes attacks
| launched on restricted front with
! all the concentrated resources that
Germany has left for the purpose OF
retahng an observatory or obliterat'
| ing a salient lack none of the deter.
mination and desperateness OF the
| Verdun assaults.
| No war correspondent or civilian
has Set foot on Ladies' Road since 1t
was wrested from the Germans by the
French. What takes place there can
only be learned from the survivors
who come back after a weeks de-
tense of the road The story of one
is the story Of all-differing only in
detail and not in kind. The following
is one of many thousands:
The battalions Of chasseurs we
were to relieve had passed an agitat-
ed period that included violent at
tacks by the Germans with ensuing
influx and reflux. To reach our front
lines we must cross the first and Sec
ond lines of the famous Hindenburg
position all of which in this locality
hoo NV
tillery has completely demolished
every bombproof and shelter of the
original Hindenburg line, and for us
lit is a question of sleeping under the
open sky and glimmering stars.
Our officers go forward to recon
hotter the ground. AS the officers
talk together a Boche marmite falls.
A lieutenant is killed and another
wounded. A little farther along,
rifle grenade mortally wounds anoth,
! er officer. We take possession of our
sector and work hard to render it i'm
pregnable to surprise attack. The
boches are only fifty yards away. AT
$3.50 in the morning they attack.
From our front line we can see
their infantry. They are so close to
their own barrage that at one mo-
ment they are obliged to fall back to
keep from being massacred by their
own shells. We have orders to die on
the spot before abandoning our line.
| A hand combat is quickly engaged.
The Germans succeeded in getting
into our trenches. We do not have
enough grenades to beat off their at
tacks.
But the waves which we drive
| hack are quickly replaced with fresh
troops and the hand-to-hand fghtins
continues. A lieutenant in charge OF
a section after driving one German
assault is surrounded by a second.
The lieutenant shoots three German
flame shooters. He finds that the de-
fensive grenades they are using do
not have a range sufficiently long and
orders his men to seize offensive
grenades. The latter are still in their
heavy packing cases. To open them
his men use pickaxes at the risk OF
exploding the whole case. But they
get them out and drive the German
! flame throwers back. At this point
the enemy has now been thrown back
across the Chemin des Danes.
We find another soldier sitting on a
calmly shooting down German gre
can get within reach of him An
other soldier after valiantly beating
off the Germans from in front Of his
shell hole only to find that still others
are threatening 10 cut him off from
the rear, comes back and Indignantly
asks his lieutenant at what range he
must fix his rifle in order to get those
pigs there
AT ten in the morning, we have
the boches back on the other side OF
the Chemin des Danes. In the even
ing we await eagerly the official cont
imunique. A line announces that an
Iattack has been repulsed on the Chem
in des Danes. The ~erman commun
ique next day makes even briefer ref
erence." Such is the life today on the
Chemin des Danes that was built for
royal ladies to visit their summer
homes.