Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-04
VENGEANCE
OF A JUST GOD
How a Frenchman Regards the
Smashing of the Germans by
the British Under Haig
at Arras
BY HENRI BAZIN
Speerci Correspondent Of the Evening Ledger
IN FruHcc.


PARIS, May 10.
T WAS awakened at . o'clock in the
L morning by the phone beside my bed
ringing as " the house was on fire.
| familiar voice at the other end OF the wire,
that Of a captain in the infantry OF France
said: Bon jour. Time to get up You are
booked for an auto trip TO the English
front The car will be at your door at
8" Before daylight we were in Arras,
Arras the destroyed.
Napoleon. It is written, often referred TO
a precept Of Frederick the Great, although
he did not always practice what he
preached, notably at Marengo. III you
would give battle" was Fredericks dlctum.
mass all your troops; you can never mass
| too many" Add the word artillery to
troops and you have the reason the Eng.
lish have been victorious before Arras, at
Vimy. at Lens
The army Of King George, under the able
command OF Marshal Haig, has not ceased
In artillery fire during the last three months
Of winter. OF rain and cold and snow. II
has only varied its intensity 1t has been
either crescendo or descrescendo; but the
20" has been constantly on the Job.
Now that 1t is permitted | may say that
for some time back the crescendo has been
allegro agitato, night and day, hour for
hour and minute for minute. And with It
the most magnificent air raid of the war.
More than 1900 air photographs had been
taken over area anywhere from Ave to
twenty kllometers back Of the Boche line,
making true the range and accuracy Of fire
from most tremendous quantity OF cannon
OF all calber, and in consequence a very
shambles Of Boche trenches, CT Boche
bayous, Of roads and open spaces, OF every
thing behind the Boche stand TO the full dis
tance and more than have outlined upon a
front of forty klometers. That meant no
bread for the poor barbarian for the full
distance in depth and length, and without
bread nothing in the true meaning Of re-
sstance.
War Without Bread
Boche prisoners whom | saw when l was
on this front frankly said they had not
sunk their teeth in the stan Of life for two
and three, and in some cases, four full
periods Of twenty-four hours They showed
II. too, in the way they tackled the English
rations. There was nothing doing back of
their line in the way of provisioning or dis
tributing food The barbarian was too busy
lodging shell fragment or engaged in spill
ing his anatomy over the sacred soil Of
France
Two hours after I reached the English
line Just as the day was born, veritable
hell Of fire opened upon the Boche. 1t was
Internal, and l stood back of its range, a
mass Of shrek and song passing over my
head. II must have been seven different
kinds of inferno before me, off there in the
gray OF the morning Distress fuses from
the Boche could be seen in the early day
light. They signaled despair to their rear
and they symbolized Joy to the army of the
King.
With the day three hours old with this
fire indescribable having lasted two full
hours, II suddenly ceased, and brigade after
brigade Of khaki-clad leaped from their new
and shallow trenches, advancing with a
shout that could have been heard in Arras,
every man with the light Of holiness in his
eyes and his bayonet fixed to his rife. They
covered the ground TO Lens as in bound
and carried everything before them. They
were irresistible. They were magnificent.
/ got down on my knees and thanked the
AlnlBnty lot having Deen permitted TO see
and then | drew these same knees out Of
the mud and went after, my French captain
and an English lieutenant as an escort. |
felt the lust of battle. | felt the avengng
of my fathers brother, hanged head down
from a tree by Uhlans in 1871, who, when
found, had blackened face and outstretched
tongue. / felt something OF slight recon-
pense for that which outraged my soul the
other day when / saw my fathers burned
house in Nesle, when I looked upon the
graves of ancestors defed. God is very,
very good after ALL And praise be to His
Holy Name.
The advance was an avalanche Of little
contemptibles," very multitude, the flower
of England's youth, the Drawn of young
Ireland. the half-Yank from Canada, the
AnZac from the Antipodes. IL was a gigan-
tic wave of young humanity devouring
everything before It,
It was, too, an object lesson for Amer-
cans. That is, If my poor words can convey
a tithe of that they aim to- For IL was a
victory first OF material, in which the United
States is sc rich and which in its riches II
must pour out upon this western front. 1t
was, second, victory Of men, OF the splen-
did English soldier who, man for man, is
not worth the hundredth part of a grain be-
yond the splendid American soldier. 1t was
mettle and brain and Drawn and the mag
nihcentagenius OF Haig. The last Is not for
America. But there are others" The first
three America has. Send them over. Put
them on the job, and NOW.
The Boche is I'm badly demoralized state
all along the French and English front. He
is gradually getting 1t full into his head
that there is a bunch Of real force that was
not born beside the Rhine, It's the only
thing ne can understand, Honor is not his.
nor justice, nor reason. Force he can
spell. And he has a spelling book full of 1t
these days.
To complete this story. this story that
tells all too III the mcst wonderful sight l
ever expect to look upon, l must take ref
uge in metaphor. gardener might say the
attack was in form as the magic blooming
OF a vast flower. The opening of a great
fan, Moliere's Celimene might say. The
wide wave OF an irresistible sea, a sailor
might say or think, since all sailors are
poets In word or thought. A straight line
Is the shortest distance between two points.
The straight Boche line Of which / write
measured about eighteen kilometers. Broken
by the attack, II almost instantly measured
thirty Curved to a Jagged ellipse as II was
an hour afterward, II measured forty.hve.
There is a bit Of the line, the bit l saw
through the glass this day Of grace. II was
three times its original length and kllo-
meters deep into territory Of France held
by Germany thirty hours ago.
Unless, like Pascals circumference, Hin
denburg's line is nowhere, his line, his IA
nous line, is broken.
The battle continues on the same plan
with the same rhythm, the same hell of