The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-03-07
OF THE u
GERMANS BROKEN
MEN FROM EAST DECEIVED AND
READY TO SURRENDER.
NEW HOSPITAL TRAIN SERVICE
Work Of Rebuilding Homes in France
Well Under Wa".-Red Cross Es-
tabiishes a canteen on the
American Front Line.

With the American Army in France,
March GA remarkable story of the
shattered morale os the German troops
brought from the Russian front was
told by deserters taken prisoners when
they approached the American trench
es near the CChemin des DANES. They
said that two men were chosen by a
secret German societ in each of three
German regiments to cross mo mans
land in the night and carry the mes
lsage that the regiments were ready to
throw down their arms
They said that when they left the
eastern front they were told that they
We're going home and that their fight
ing days were over Instead they were
carrie across Germany and placed on
the western front. They had been
told that there were no ships on the
sea and that no Americans had crossS
ed. They, therefore, believed that they
were facing British in khaki uniforms.
Use Hospital Train De Luxe.
With the American Army in France,
March 6.-An army hospital train de
| luxe was used first to carry an accum-
lulation Of wounded from an evacuation
Hospital to a base hospital far from
the fighting zone. The train is one OF
ten built in England and more of
which have been ordered for France.
| q ,f CIV
| steel vestibuled, steam heated, cleo
trio lighted cars. They are painted in
khaki green, with "U. S." in red letters,
in the centers of Maltese crosses on
red and white backgrounds at the
ends. Nine of the cars are fitted up
] as wards, each with thirty-six beds ar
! ranged in three tiers.
The other cars are used for stores,
personnel, kitchen, pharmacy and sur
gical dressing room, for sitting pa
! TENTS, officials staff officers and
nurses. One of the cars contains the
infectious wards. It is expected that
the train will be operated regularly
henceforth.
Rebuild Horaes in France.
With the French Armies, March 6.
The work of reconstruction in the
devastated regions of France is con-
tinuing steadily. In the department
/ of the Somme alone, there were after
the German retreat in March, 1917, 49,
600 houses entirely dc-t~Crcl end
eco badly damaged. In this depart
ment, $50 houses have already been
made kabitable again and plans for
putting up 1900 portable houses, each
I capable Of sheltering one family, have
been adopted Although the means
are scant, 200 of these houses will be
erected each month At the same time
nearly 900 schools have been open
ed. The actual work is being carried
out with the aid of both the civil and
military authorities. No effort to
bring the deserted fields and gardens
back under cultivation this year will
be spared. Hundreds of thousands of
garden plants lave been distributed.
canteens On the Front Line.
! Paris, March 6.-The last half of
American soldiers on their way to the
trenches in Lorraine and the first half
on coming out will, after Tuesday be
the front line canteen of the American
Red Cross. 1t is called the Hot Drink
Station" and coffee, tea and bouillon
will be supplied there by the Red Cross
worker who has earned the recommen-
dalton for a French decoration for
similar work done for the poiIus on
the French front.
| These hot drink stations, although
not right up to the trenches, are with
| in firing and eassing distance of the
enemy's line. There have bee:i twenty
! five established on the French front,
some OF them in dugouts, some in i'm
lprovised kitchens made of sandbags,
and some in shelled ruins. They not
only provide hot coffee and similar
drinks to the tired and chilled soldiers
just relieved from their long watch in
muddy trenches, but they send big
Norwegian heaters full of coffee into
the front line trenches. These are car
ried on poles by two men, who are
quite as likely to shed their blood for
their country as the man shouldering
rifle.
The hot drink station workers wear
steel helmets and gas masks. One OF
them has a dent in his helmet from a
fragment of a she'll More than l mill
ion hot drinks and rations have been
dispensed by these Red Cross men to
the French soldiers. with whom they
are extremely popular. The Alpine
chasseurs, the famous French light
mounted infantry, have made one of
them an honorary chasseur
Nine kitchens are ready to be in
stalled at the American front as soon
as needed