Tombstone epitaph. (Tombstone, Ariz.) 1887-current, 1918-08-04

whom we had met before, these were
extremely frightened. appearing to be
in mortal terror Of their enemy. When
ever they looked upon one of us Ger.
man soldiers they cringed in terror
How different these were from the
inhabitants of the village where we
had first stopped, who had met us in
friendly, even polite manner. We
tried 10 learn the cause of this fright
and discovered that the fugitives had
witnessed in their village bitter street
fighting. They had bee, me acquainted
with war-had seen their hmses
burning had seen their little properly
destroyed and could not forget the
sight Of their streets filled with corpses
and wounded.
1t dawned upon rs that not merely
fear gave these people me appearance
Of hunted animals: there was also
hatred toward the invaders who had
fallen upon them and driven them
from their homes by n cht.
In the evening we departed and
tried 10 reach our own regiment. The
Belgians had concentrated somewhere
10 the rear under cover Of darkness.
We were quite near the neigLbUrhoOd
of the fortified city c. Liege. Many
settlements through which we passed
stood in flames: the inhabitants driven
out. passed us in droyes. Women.
children and old men We're buffeted
about and seemed TO be everywhere in
the way. Without aims or plans, With
out place on which TO lay their heads
these poor people dragged themselves
by.
Again we reached a village. which
TO all appearances had been inhabited
by contented people. Now indeed
nothing but runs could be seen.
Wrecked houses and farms, Gead soi-
diers. German and Belgian, and among
them many civilians, who had been
shot by military order.
Toward midnight we reached the
German lines. The Germans had
tried 10 take village which lay with
in the fortified belt Of Liege and was
defended tenGciCusly by .he BelCians.
Here all forces had 20 be used in or.
der 10 drive the enemy out. house by
house and street by street. Ii was not
very dark yet. so that we had 10 wit
ness with all Of our senses the terrible
fights which developed here. II was
man-to-mau fight. With the butts Of
our guns. knives. fists, teeth we went
against the enemy.
One Of my best friends fought with
a giant Belgian. The guns Of both had
fallen 70 the ground. They hammered
one another with fists. ] had just
closed an account with twenty-five
year-old Belgian and was going 10 as
sist my friend because his antagonist
was Of superior strength. Ny friend
succeeded suddenly in biting the Bel
gian on the chin so deeply that he tore
a piece of flesh our with his teeth. The
Belgian's pain must have been terri
BILE. He released my comrade and ran
away with an insane cry OF pain.
Everything developed by seconds.
The blood of the Belgian ran out of
my friends mouth; & terrible nausea
and inGescribable loaihinC seized him.
liz ta>lt Y. NdIlL fuGlldD
brought him almost TO the verge of in
sanity. In the course Of this night
battle 1 came in contact for the GIst
time with the butt OF Belgian gun.
During a hand-to-hand fight with a
Belgian, second enemy soldier
struck me on the back Of the head
with The butt of his gun so hard that
my helmet was forced down over my
ears. The pain was fearful and !
tainted.
When I revived, was lying in a
barn. with my head bandaged, among
other wounded men. Ny wound was
not severe. / only had q feeling as II
my head was twice its normal size.
The other wounded soldiers and the
ambulance men said the Belgians had
been forced back within the forts and
that hard fighting was still In prog
ress.
Wounded men were brought In con-
tinuously ard they told us that the
Germans had already stormed several
forts and had taken number Of main
and auxiliary defenses, bur could not
hold them because they had not been
sufficiently supported by artillery. The
defenses inside the forts and their gar
risOns were still intact. The situation
was not ripe for q stOrming attack, SO
the Germans had 10 retire with enOr-
nous losses. The reports we received
were contradictory. II was impossible
to get a clear picture. In the mean
time the artillery Bombardment had
become so intense that il Mortified
even the German soldiers. The heavi.
est artillery was brought into action
against the steel and concrete de-
lenses.
No soldier so far knew anything Of
the existence of the 42-centimeter NOR.
tars. Long after Liege was In Ger
man hands these soldiers could not
understand how il was possible that
the defenses, which consisted of dou-
BILE six-meter walls Of steel and con-
crete, were reduced after only a few
hours bombardment
myself could not take part in these
operations, being wounded. but my
comrades told me later how the cap
ture Of the several forts came about.
Artillery Of all caliber was trained on
the forts, but 1t was the 21-centimeter
niortars and the as which performed
the real work.
From a distance the 42-eentimeter
projectiles were heard to arrive, to the