The Alaska citizen., 1917-10-01

FRANCE. S.pt Assault ou new point n -o- 5e~meu lines ill the west. such as was bs-uu during The pas, .ea weeks in Flanders. Is p~e cedad by many weeks of prepara- tory activity The moving up 10 their new positions Of hundreds of batteries Of artillery Is only one phase Of this preparatory activity but one which requires an infinite amount of labor and transport
 To move battery of howtrzers ...m ..e old y.mE Ridge battlefield 70 he new Flanders battlefield re- gu..es roughly four Of five days An account of this process of transfer has been written for the Associated Press bs Lieutenant K. x. Coly.Ie, attached to "o00- Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery. He writes:
 We were not sorry to leave Petit. court. Its last occupants had been cer.ala Huns and these folks are not at the best of times very de sirable tenants, while their time in occupation of pet.tcouit had lauerIy been very far from best not even
 pod, in fact, Long before they Iasr ..r houses had been suffered to iaI into such a state of dlsrepatr that they wore driven to living n ,.e cellars. which they had enlarged and deyp.ned for the purpos Here they hal spent days at d time with Ut emerging 10 the li4ht of heaven. m, he sanitary amansem.ncs what evsr they may have been had eyl- teuly broken down badly
 1000 Hea.~ Battery, R. G. A, in due course came to occupy the scene of the desoIa,ion which itself had ,.Iped 50 create. This, indeed, is .': tragedy of the heavy gunner's '..,. He arrives opposite some plea saut tree swathed village, adm.re= rom his Joint of vantage across in, valley the white chateau, and thinks ,nytously of the com,ortable quarters it is affordirg to thu other side. In a few weeks, or a few months il is .s turn to occupy that promised land. But alas, he wishes himself back on Pisgah, away from the smell and filth and the ghasrly ruin Of this shell torn place
 Such a spot was Pettcourt, and We were not sorry when We learned that our work here Wis done, and that We were to go and repeat the operation elsewhere. For before We could again ply our grim task there must be a brief interval of move ment of the open road. of the com radeship it brings to men and horses.
 We had day or two to mare preparations for our journey and the time was fully occupied At pinch We could move on at few hours notice, but trench warfare en- Coura&es one to accumulate stores ant articles of luxury which may as well be properly disposed of if pos spble, for nothing of it all can be tarcn except the eq 'iplacnt laid down So our surplus stores were retured to Ordnance, and our oado anl ends of furniture, home made beds and tables saved from tLe ruins Of tuC village were distributed among oul reighbors. Then, the day before the start, the guns wera pulled out from Petitcourt, and he whole bal tery. united once more, spent the night down at the wagon lines, all ready for an early start next morn ing.
 "A light rain was falling, thing 90 common in the battle area that We have ceased to count il as good or evil; it is part of the persistent order Of ture The yocalists of the battery caroled snatches of all man Tel of songs, sentimental, burlesque or bellicose. One of the lost kind proudly told how:
 We fought them on the Marne
 We fought them on the Aisne,
 We gave them hell at New Cha
 belle,
 And here we are again.
 "At last the appointed hour ar
 ed and the cortege. half a mile 4ong, filed out in column of route on to the road.
 All mo- ming We wound along; our progress was slow, for there was much traffic on the roads and we had two villages to pass through. We could not take the direct north and south route to our destination for that would entail too much cross