Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-30

Continued from PAGE One
1t In the night and flung eight-inch
shells among its lead trees. so that
the enemy fled from it's terror. Three
men did not escape, but slept stolidly
ike dead men through all the gunfire
until awakened. Yesterday morning,
when the Welshmen went in, | saw
coming down the road from Longueval
under escor three white.faced fel.
lows who still looked drugged by
sleep, but We're sheepish as they
passed.
/ have had many strange and thrill
ing experiences on the battletields of
the Somme from the time whe the
British fought yard by yard in 1915, so
that every foot of the ground IA the
arena of a new battle and every clump
OF shelled trees, every ditch, every
mound and heap of ruins vas the
scene Of some terrible episode until a
few days after March II, when | saw
the British coming back across Pc.
zieres ridge with the enemy in close
pursuit and German shells falling in
old places which for years had been
immune from fire.
Old Emotions Return
But Yesterday many of those old
emotions were returned by the good
sense of being able to go on once more
up the Albert-Bapaume road, past La
Boiselle. and through CONTAMINATION
to the ridge at Longueval and Del.
vile Wood. with the wonderful feel.
ing that once again some foul spell
had been lifted from these fields and
that there was o to roam in them
again these places that are held by
the heroic valor Of the British now
that the enemy has been driven back
to his vanishing line of retreat.
To us who have followed this war
in body and spirit those ]upheaved and
mangled fields are sacred ground,
strewn with the graves of men who
fell, there. Their graves are still, with
the white crosses put up to them still
standing above the turmoil of earth.
The enemy had o touched them and
the British shellfire had not destroyed
them.
SO far as | could see. the only diff.
ference since the enemy sprawled back
here and stayed a little while and
then was flung IA again is that
many bodies Of gray-clad men lie
a rnn,D tho shall GRO : a, q rj ,hn, .ha
roads and tracks are Uttered with
dead horses. so that the air is pesti-
with o u odOrs, and every
where among the old trenches and
with their white, u]pturned chalk
and the litter of barbed wire. are
German notice boards pointing
the way to firing lines and observa.
ton posts and giving the directions of
tracks mach Mamerz, mach Tongue.
mach Ginchy. They had tried to
made of rushes and had dug
ieep shelters under banks and In old
.renrhes in order to escape from the
rarassing British fire.
In shell crateTs and bitches lie their
gas masks, rifles and equip
nent. and here and there is the wreck
lge Of "A field gun or timber. untouched
put abandoned by the enemy in their
light and strewn over all the ground
ire vast numbers Of uneXploded shells.
British Batteries Far Forward
Yesterday morning on the Somme
"a ttlefelds. the British batteries were
n action far forward. having been
brought up in the night, by unresting
,unners and others, getting into pc.
in places which yesterday were
n German hands. Officers rode their
1orses on the way to find good en-
placements for heavies or field guns
long tracks where ii would have been
,sath TO ride a short time before, and
hey called out CHEEKY greetings to in
"a ntrv officers. who were upon foot.
There was some scattered but feeble
round about Martinpuich and
,ver nv Morval. but for the most part
he German guns were silent. trek
ling away to safety. and II was the
british artillery that made all the
mise of battle. The long shouts of the
is inch guns that had been brought
IN somehow by the spirit and strength
Z men. and horses, tired but eager to
,st ahead. were believing out their
menace to the retreating Germans,
,iaIl guns hammered out their shots
nd spent their shells almost as fast
,s tha ammunition could be brought
ID by the transport columns which
Notice of Removal