Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-11-16
RUIN MARKS TRAIL
OF FIGHTING ARMIES
Villages Blotted Out, Homes Re
duccd to Dust in Sections
Where Americans Fought.
With the American Forces in Fran,

With the American Forces in France
Nov. 5-Thc country over which the
Americans fought their way north
west from Ncrtlum presents picture
of ruin, destruction and dcsolation. The
villages are uninhabitcd and homes seem
but scpulchrcs.
Torn by mines causing huge cratcrs,
gashed by bomharlmcnts which made
hundreds of thousands Of shel-holcs
and strcwn with broken or abandoned
guns, wagons, heaps of ammunition
helmets and all the other debris OF four
wears of desperate fighting, the whole
route bctravv the awful effects OF war.
EVERYWHERE. in every direction and
protecting each slightest angle and nook,
across the roads until tom away by
shells or human hands, are countless
strands of barbcd wire. most OF II r'isted
by the rains craziiy topsy-turyy on its
supporting stakes that have fallen TO
night and left. III il takes four years
to win the war" said some casual WISH
tor to the front 1T will take SIX years
to roll up the barbcd wire that has been
used in winning IT
Take for instance, the trip from
ruined. dcsolatc Avoycourt northward
to Malancourt and Montiaucon, the
scene of some of the bittercst fighting
before ever the American offensive
started.
For a solid mile northward the road
winds across foothills that once were
covered with green trees hut now are
shorn and bare Gigantic mines have
| torn the road in twain and gougcd out
| holes fifty and more feet deep, hundred
! and more feet across, Ia get around
or across which engineers have had tn
exercise their ingenuity and the SUI
rounding country, stripped ot its wood,
has furnished the rock Fortunately
there is plenty of that.
| To either side Of the road arc the
remains of what were once llvahle, com
Portable dugouts and buildings. blown
into thousands of pieces by discharges nf
explosive when the enemy r"tr"at"d
Farther a field and rs far rs the eve can
reach across the low hills are hundreds
and thousands of she'll holes. their craters
overlapping. big and littl" holes from
missiles of every character. that have
torn and Scared the earth almost he
yond the hope Of redemption.
/ Everywhere is the battlefield, guns.
! helmets. arti les Of clothing, pies and
heaps OF ammunition, broken down and
splintcrcd wagons, caissons and trucks
| And f one 90 over the scene aoon
enough. bodies awaiting burial
The comparison between NalanC"nrt
and tvocourt is striking because the
former has suffered SO much moro
| buildings .no longer have even sent
| hancc of their former state. Where III
! Avocourt walls At least still stand here
and there In NaIancourt everything
has been RACED as though with dNna-
mite. and the crimhling remnants arc
Rtt -. torn Il
roads and make them passahlc for IN"
,nSatia II armies abe q that must have
more and more ammunition. and food
and supplies.
Neither Nalancnurt. nor Nontfaucan,
nor any ono az a score az towns within
the sector where the Americans opera,
ted has single living inhaiHtant left
4 In every direction Is a waste OF eratcrS
and up-torn earth II Is the qtlntcSscncc
of dcSola''on and nothlngncss
The zee beautiful wooded slopes
and hills arc now torn and glshcd. Great
artillery boInbarlmcntS have stripped
hill@idcs vi All but the stumps Of their
trees, which tower pathctirallv against
the sky without branches or foliage,
mere crippled relics ot their former selves.
MANY oi them have been shattered hy
shells as by lightning others ctH oil
rs thought ~ bungling wood chol pe
unable 10 tell tree clcanlv
The reconstruction 81 Europe is ad-
mlttcdv going to be j long, hard task,
far longer than the war that made il
] necessary In time To come the meadows
! and valleys between Avocourt and
! Aialancmlrt will he green again and
the trees of the Argonne Forest will
grow ~ as they did before 1911 But
aS thcv all look now il seems very very
. far in the future before the run, the
/ utter destruction. can be made good
and the former status Of this portion
/ uf france restored