Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-10-29
BATTLE FRONT is
SCENE OF HORROR
Arthur M. Cannon Returns
From France; Conditions
Belittle Description.
HAS ENOUGH; WON'T RETURN
Lived for Month After Month
in Hole in the Ground
While Shells Burst.

language to describe is the battle
front in France. says Arthur Nj.
Cannon, Tulsa oil man, who has
just returned from five months
service with the American ambulance
corps. Even Dante himself, who ex'
hausted his imaginative genius de-
picting the Internal regions. could
not overdraw the human slaughter
pen of the ages.
SO terrible Is IL that when one
gets away from II his whole t@sirc,
Mr.. Cannon says. is to wipe II from
his memory. 1T Is sickcning TO
see IL. sickening to think about II
and sickening to recall it, he said.
II am not going back; I've got
enough"
Cannon, however, had determined
to return and had entered the Frcnch
officers school at MeuX, where he
was training to become an army Of
ficer when he learned OF his fathers =
death. which occurred some months
ago. Then he decided that his duty
lay i'm coming back to Tulsa and
taking care of the family's oil in
vestments.
Assigned To Ambulance Company.
Mr.. Cannon went to France last
summer He and his partner the
late II. w. Mcintosh. decided To- go
to France and do their hit Cor the
sorely pressed French by helping
take care of thoir wounded. hut Nc
Intosh never got out of the United
States He die1 on his way to the
training camp at Leon Springs. Gam
mon then determined to work with
the American ambulance corps,
Sixtieth division, with the Fourth
army of France in the Champaign
sector.
lie was stationed about five miles
from the village of Rheims and was
in plain view of the celebrated
cathedral, but did not have an OPP
portrnity to visit II. He could not
confirm or deny the many state
ments that have been published that
the Germans deliberately destroyed
the famous edifice and its wonderful
architecture. with shell fire.
Just imagine living always In a
hole in the ground. every minute
for month after month, with thou
sands of shells bursting all around
you every minute of the time with
out let-up," said Cannon, and
you may have a faint idea of what
the battlefront is like. You dare not
step out from under shelter with
out a steel helmet on your head fon
eat three times a day. At night you
drive ambulances thru the dark,
picking up the dead and wounded
with shells falling around you every
minute. That's what | did for the
four months I was on the front
But | wouldn't undertake to describe
even one-third of the horrors | saw.
Nobody would believe ne; they'd
think | was crazy.
A Hell OF Hail.
"The French have been fighting
now for three years. They have been
in this hell of hail every hour of that
time. They have lost two and hall
million of their young men. In fact
all the young men of the country
have been killed and are gone. a
great majority of the French soldiers
who are now holding the battle front
are old men--men between 40 and
So 1t Is no wonder France Is ex-
hausted and about all in"
Mr.. Cannon declined to confirm
or deny other reports that france Is
virtually out of the fight, but he did
say that she would not have been able
TO hold back the Germans any longer
II America had not entered the war
"The hope of the French now is all
/ centered on the American army" he
said. They were sorely in need of
help and that Wen give them will
enable them to win. But last spring
it was very serious question of the
French being able to keep the Boche
out"
Now that the Americans are arriv-
ing in large numbers, Mr.. Cannon
said the attitude Of the French toward
all Americans is unbounded They
will do everything and anything for
the 'Sammies.'
Always COnsideratc.
But they were showing the same
consideration to all the Americans
composing the hospital and ambulance
corps before any of our regulars had
arrived he said He and all the $500
young Americans who went over on
their own expense TO assist I'm the hos
pital and field work were treated with
the same consideration shown French
officers. They were given the same
food, given the same pay, and shown
the same honor and considerat ton al
all times.
Mr.. Cannon was in front line work
at Cornellet. where attacks and coun-
ter attacks never end; where artillery
fire is raging every minute Of every
hour, day after day and month after
month; where, even now, In the whole
| Champagne sector. thousand men
are killed daily. At the battle OF Cor
nellet last May the French lost 1s0. .00O
men-not wounded. but killed. said
Mr.. Cannon.
WELL how long do you think II
will take us to lick the kaiser?" Mr.
| Cannon was asked.
"They are licked now, but the ques.
ton Is how long 1t will take him &c
realize it," he replied. Some think
the war will end in few months
others say It will continue several
years It's a matter OF opinion. You
people at home know as much or more
than I because where | was we never
got any newspapers, except occasion
ally and, OF course. they did noe con-
tain all the war news The American
papers when we could get hold OF one
occasionally. contained great deal