The Little River news. (Ashdown, Little River County, Ark.) 1897-current, 1917-06-20
GERMANS ERASE
WHOLE TOWNS
Scenes of MercileSS Destruction Tell
Why British Soldiers Want
RetributiOn Against the
Retreating Boche.
RY ]. W. Pegler.


erased by dynamite, orchards sheared
off at the ground and towering rows
of roadside Tees methodically felled-
these scenes of merciless destruction
! illustrate why British soldier wants
retribution against the Boche.
Tommy goes ahead repairing The
roads and clearing the debris from: vii
! lage streets, admitting that it was
military good sense for the enemy 10
obstruct the lines of pursuit.
But the Germans said they did these
! things to prevent the concealmelt Of
/ troops And the soldier reasons il This
way. The Boohe airplanes neve" get
! ever anyway to observe where the
troops are n?dssing. SO what G.tcr-
9nce could it 1Aake whether theE have
t0ncealment? Also, the BOche Was
careful to ruin orchards, but bc left
.hany acres o. dense but unpro iuctive
woods
What's the answer? Strafe en-
Peronne Cathedral refutes the plea
of military necessity. Dynamite blew
out the east wall and two sides and
brought the dome crashing amid the
PROSTATE stone columns. Today the
interior is a mountain of hopeless
wreckage. On its sagging balcony the
pipe organ sings the ghost OF peace
time anthem as the day breeze goes
soughing through the valves. The
pipes jangie as a brick is dislodged and
tumbles to the floor. Far away the
guns boom.
The British never shelled the church
The remaining west wall is not SCARED
by shell fragments. 1t was left stand
ing 10 hamper British observation.
Dugouts In Cemetery.
At the outskirts Of the town lies
Peronne Cemetery where the Boche
dug in among the dead. Corpses were
thrown into bonfires and the vaults
occupied by German officers as dug
outs. Two trench lines run straight
through the cemetery.
Military necessity made the enemy
smash the door of French family
tomb where six dead had sept for
many years. The coftias remained ex-
posed
Two English guard regiments with
a little feud between them went into
tn cemetery on the heels of the BOche.
The first arrivals found one coffin Dor
ed by a machine gun bulle, from the
direction of their advance. This mes
sage was on the white washed wall:
The Boche may have had dug-outs
here but he didn't shoot the hole in
the far-off coffin
To which the late Corners scrubbed
this reply:
Neither did they write on the
walls, you blackguards'
Strewn with the fragments of head
stones and battlefield junk are count
less bead-work wreaths, placed by
mourners in days of peace. a Notre
Chere Grandmers, said the inscript-
ion on one. Grandmere's grave may
be one OF those pried open.
Graye of Child.
At the edge Of the cemetery was
very little grave, carpeted blue with
forget-menots, The headstone said
Madelaine was only four years old. The
Boche had not touched it. Nearby a
row of wooden Iron Crosses" each
Inscribed "Unser Kamerade,' gave
proof that the German cadaver factory
lost some raw n!tdtl's,l through senti-
ment.
At Arras the Cathedral and the Ho-
tel de Vile are smashed beyond pos
sibility Of restoration. Only a small
corner of dhe hotel survives as a mem
DRY of that grand specimen of Spanish
architecture
Bapaume is hideous shell, although
the Australians have cleared up the
streets. Here an Australian, peaceful
ly tending a cooking stew, told how the
Boche hate goes mad at times.
German naval gun tries to shell
us now and again, " he said. But
the gunners must be crazy, judging
from the way they shoot.
The road toward Albert runs through
the country where the British artil-
lery first discovered its strength Ruin
stretches for miles, On top of the
Butte de Warlencourt is a wooden
monument by British regiment erect
ed to their comrades who died storm
ing the country. There is rot the
slightest trace of the town. With a
feldglass abandoned tanks may be
sighted on this old battlefield, one of
them labelled II Russian 'Petcograd."
4 1t IS inconceivable to the battlefield
tourist that this country was great
farm land and woods, dotted with vii
lagos before the Boche came