The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-11-17
UNDER fire IN
FRENCH TRENCHES
Correspondent Describes Visit to
Battle Line in Argonne
Forest.
NOIsIEsT THING IS BIRDS
Germans Drop an Occasional Poorly
Aimed SheII--Officer Calls 1t Dull
Life-visit Acceptable Break
In Monotony of Daily Life.

Somewhere in France.-Just now tn,
Argonne forest is no place for a mar
aching for scrap. Vauquois Plateau
where thousands of French and Ger
mans met death in bloody combat, is
as quiet on these sunny autumn days
as the Polo Grounds in midwinter
Barring an occasional thunder roll
| from far away batteries, and an hour
! ly reciprocal bombardment by French
and German guns, the noisiest thing
that stirs the valleys is the twitter of
the birds.
A young French officer returning
to his trench sector from a village a
short distance behind the front, eS-
corted three correspondents to po-
sition from which a wide stretch of
the Argonne front could be easily seen.
Our car sped through an utterly de-
serted village, devastated by the re-
treating Germans after the battle Of
the Marine and more completely ruined
by later bombardments.
The road led straight out into
great amphitheater bordered by wood
ed hills, criss-crossed by the ruins of
old trenches.
Batteries in Woods.
"See those sticks?" said our escort,
pointing to q row plainly visible to
the naked eye along the top of a hill
to our left. "There are the Boches'
barbed wire and trenches. He has a
few batteries in that woods. If he was
energetic he might give us a few
Shells"
The German positions We're getting
uncomfortably nearer. We left the car
under a slight rise in the ground that
hid it from German observation, and
started on foot across a field to seek
cover behind hill held by the French.
We had barely clambered out of the
car when shell burst 900 yards ahead
in field near the road over which our
car had been speeding.
"Weu, he did try one on u.s." laugh
ed the French officer, "but it was a
bad one. I'll wire the kaiser to take
away his Iron Cross"
Over in the dugouts behind the
French trench line an assortment of |
poilus were whiting away at knick-
nacks, playing cards or taking cat |
maps. The dull boom of guns came
across intervening hills from the Yer :
dun front, only few kilometers away. |
Our escorting officer led the way on up |
over the hilltop past an anti-aircraft !
gunner who wished us "bOn jour" and |
lamented because he hadn't seen a ,
German for many days.
Calls 1t Dull Life.
At an artillery observation post our
coming was an event. The officer in
charge confided that 1T was dull life.
The Germans hadn't sent a shell his
way for a long time. He was glad to
meet newcomers and mighty glad to
Freak the monotOny of a days work
~ pointing out the Boche trenches in
he valley below and the great Vau-
luois mine crater on the yellow side
# Vauquois plateau. No sign of life
ame from trenchland. At one point
where q V-shaped German trench
eemed almost to run into a V-shaped
french trench-only 60 feet separated !
hem-there had been a little grenade
ossing a few hours earlier, when poi
Us and BOches needed warming up ex-
rcises after breakfast. That was all.
Back we went to the officers dug
ut for quite palatable war bread and
line.
"War out here" he said as we were
,aving, moves like molasses."