New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1918-07-10
WHERE THE BOMBS FALL
Continued from 1st page3

It was while on this road to Amiens
that we were brought to realization
of what the Germans really had done.
l had been in the city two weeks be-
fore. It was occupied by women and
children and old men. In l9o6 1t had
a population of $4,000. The streets
on the first visit were clean and ORDERLY
the people we'll housed, feeling SAFE,
forty miles from the battle front: But
on this day in March all was different;
Fifty German airplanes had dropped
200 bombs on the city, blowing up
Added to the population of two
weeks before We're wounded soldiers
and Red Cross nurses. We would see
MANY of the men brought from the
front being carried to the station on
stretchers, to be taken further back to
French or British hospitals.
Bv the roadside we saw about sixty
soldiers resting. They were in khaki
and carried packs, but they appeared
weary and worn. A British officer
told us that they had been in bos-
pital nearer the front; that an ambul-
ance had taken out the patients who
we're unable to walk, and that these,
so far recovered as to be nearly ready
for their discharges, had walked sew
eral miles to get away from the Ger
man forces. l did not learn what be-
came of the hospital itself.
Beside a house with the root gone
and part of a wall blown IN, stood
woman with babe wrapped IN sha"l.
She looked about, bewildered, dazed.
She could not enter the home Tor 1t
was in ruins: besides there was every
likelihood of more bombs being dropped.
She motioned frantically at man IN
passing horse cart, but the vehicle
was crowded and he needed not. She
crossed the street, sank by the roadslde
and Rugged the babe close to her breast;
We went back to our train but tound
it had gone Again we hurried through
the scenes of terror and devastation TO
the station, three miles, hoping to catch
the train there.
Two weeks before, when | wanted
to enter the station and take Craln
for Paris l had to show my American
passport, my British white pass, have
an officer vouch for me and give the
ticket agent the exact fare. This time
the ticket agent had left, the guard
and porters were missing; little remained
but chaos.
The only thing systematic about
the whole place was the orderly. man
ner in which men were carrying IN
stretchers bearing the wounded from
the front and placing them on Red
Cross train in the station. , :,
We soon guessed that our train had
not been able to pass through the
station, and walked through the sta.
ton and along about two miles OF
tracks to find it. There were SIX
or eight tracks in the yards and we
passed from one to another, climbing
over trains and through cars to make
sure we were not missing ours. Inc
glass was shattered in every car we
saw; bombs thrown over the area had
worked the havoc.
Manv refugees had come into the
yard and had piled on cars to which
no engine was attached, as if hoping
by some chance an engine would come
along and take them somewhere, any
where, to safety. There were OLD Wo--
men and young women, old men and
children, huddled together, fearful lest
the wrath of the German hordes should
overtake them. We went through these
scenes for more than two miles and found
our train about half mile from where
we had left it.
With war on, the German had a
perfect right, according to the rules OF
international warfare, to bomb that
railway station, to blow up the tracks,
for it was through that station and on
those tracks that men, munitions ana
food were sent from the south to supply
the army of the north, and an army has
a right to cut off the reinforcements
and supplies of any enemy army, but
there can be no rule of humanity or
decency, no right of any kind that makes
right the bombing Of innocent non
combatants, wounded soldiers and nurses
by any forces, German or Allied, but
that is uari