Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-06

Continued from Paee One
bridge construction was effected un'
der the greatest difficulties.
While the German resistance north
Of the vesle will undoubtedly be
strong the many fires burning be-
tween the Vesle and the Aisne furnish
evidence that the Germans expect be-
fore long to be forced to Withdraw
further. Their experience south Of
the yesle has shown that they can
not save all their stores which the
Crown Prince placed in the salient
south of the Observation-Disclosures.
trip made Sunday through the
territory between Fere.en-Tardenois
and Fismes showed something OF what
tho retreat had cost the Germans in
lost material. North of Fere-en.Tar-
aenois one passed mile after mile of
ashes and debris. where they had
burned the stores they could not re-
move The ruins showed the destruc-
tion of every conceivable kind OF war
material except food, which the Ger.
mans seemed to have placed first In
their salvage work. There were great
niles of ammunition partly burned.
clothing, wagon and truck parts. tons
of O1aCnlnp-gun a11llnuIllllpil' oil PloiIt
parts and all sorts of stores.
Planned Railroad to Paris
The Germans had built a narrow
gauge railroad of their own into the
salient and stored on cars and along
the tracks were enough rails to extend
the line TO Bordeaux They had evi-
IDENTIFY planned to build All elaborate
system OF tracks to Paris.
In one wide iield were the ashes
of big hangers. of which the Amer
lean advance prevented the removal.
saw the wreckaee of at least a
dozen machines which could not make
their escape, perhaps, because they
were being repaired. In one corner
Of the field We're about twenty big
aerial bombs, such as were dropped on
Paris. The dimensions OF the pile
showed that as many more had been
burned. This field. in the vicinity of
Fere.en- -Tardenois. is possibly the one
from which German bomhers operated
against the. French capital.
The trip enabled me to gather much
evidence of the success Of the method
used by the Americans in fighting ma
chine.eun nests. |. e.. to aim sev.
enty-1ve pointblank at the nest. I
saw perhaps 100 machine-gun nests
with the wreckase of guns and dead
Germans about them. showing where
the Incompatible field gun had done
its work. I also saw many machine
gun ernplaCenents. which had been
prepared but never used One wall
of a chateau had at least 100 holes
pre- pared for these weapons. but no
stand was made there
While tb,a C,erro3DS loft tba ,ybo
fields about Chateau. Thierry unmo.
Tested. these south Of the Nesle were
stripped. The wheat had been har-
vested and taken away by truck. some
remaining loads of bags telling the
story of how it was done. Captured
German documents gave instructions
for the harvesting Of this grain. which
must have amounted TO some hun
dreds of thousands Of bushels.
Took Away All Food
In the villages the Germans destroy.
ed everything they could and took
away all the food. In Vile -Moyenne
civilians, who had remained during
the German occupation, said that Ithe
military authorities had taken all their
food and refused them any subsist-
ence, but that they had been fed on
the sly by German soldiers from Lor
raine. These civilians said that the
German troops were overjoyed at the
order to withdraw from their positions
in front of the Americans and went
away singing Back to Germany"
The number of German graves
south of the Nesle indicated greater
casualties than had been estimated. 1t
had been believed that the Germans
had got away with relatively small
losses Of men and material outside OF
ammunition. but the numerous graves
and unburied bodies showed con-
siderable loss of men; and, as for the
loss of material. while most of it was
burned, it may be said that the Allies
have salvaged useful supplies worth
more than S5000,000.
The next twenty-four hours will
probably show what sort of stand the
Germans will make north of the Vesle.
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