Grand Forks herald., 1917-03-19
OLD GERMAN
LINES STREWN
WITH DEBRIS
Shell Craters, Wrecked Guns and
Pools of Filth, With Many
Dead, Lying About.
fRx Philip GibbAl

War Correspondents Headauarters.
March ~. dispatch to The London
Daily Chronicle. Tho Germans are
still holding out in Achiet-le-Petit and
Bucauoy, although believe their
residence there is not for long. From
what I saw today, watching the Brit
ish bombardment of the line to which
they retreated. it seems certain that
they will be compelled to leave In q
hurry. Just as they left Loupart Wooo
night before last.
"A went over the battlefelds to-
day it was made visible to me that the
Germans have suffered the most
devilish torments in the ground from
which they are now retreating all
north of Courcelette. up by Mirau-
mont and Pys and below Loupart.
This wild chaos Is all so upturned by
shellfire that ones forge rises at the
sight of such obscene mangling OF
our mother earth.
The ground is strewn With bodies OF
dead German soldiers. They lie, gray,
wet Jumps Of death. over a great
stretch Of ground, many of them half
buried by their comrades or by high
explosives. Most of them are stark
above the soil with eyesockets to the
sky. I stood today in the ravine TO
which Regina trench leads between
Pys and Miraumont, and not any NOR
bid vision or absinthe-maddened
dream Of hell could DO more fearful
than what stared at, standing there
the battlefield I heard the roar OF
guns on every side and the long, rush.
ing whistles Of heavy shells in flight
over Loupart wood.
The place was q shambles Of Ger
man troops. They had had machine
gun emplacements here and deep
dugout under cover of the earth
banks. but the British guns had found
them out and poured fire upon them.
All this garrison had been killed and
cut to pieces before or after death.
in every shape and shapelessness Of
death, in puddles, In broken trenches.
or on the edge Of deep ponds in the
she'll craters. The water was a vivid
green about them or red as blood
with the color Of high explosive
gases. Some British dead lay among
them. but out of $50 lying hereabouts.
700 were German soldiers.
This gunfire of the British, con-
tinued today as yesterday, leaves
nothing alive or whole when it is con-
ate In smashing it. Here 1t had flung
up machine gun emplacements and
made rubbish heaps of their case
mates and guns. 1t had broken hum
dreds of rifles into matchwood and
flung up the kits Of the men from
deep dugouts. littering the earth with
their pouches and helmets and bits of
clothing. Where I stood was only one
patch Of ground on the great battle
field.
1t is all like that, although, else.
where the dead are not SO thickly
clustered. For miles it is all pitted
with ten-foot craters intermingling
and leaving not q yard of earth un-
touched. 1t is one great obscenity,
killing for all time the legend Of
wars glory and romance.
The secret Of the German retreat is
here on this ground. To save them
selves from another shambles they
are falling back to new lines. where
they hope to be safer from the mass
ed British artillery, but. as I saw to-
day, the British gunf1re is following
them closely and forcing them back
at harder pace and killing them as
they go. The horror of war is still
close at their heels. and will never
end till the war ends, although that
may be long, o Lord! from now.