The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1918-12-28
STORY OF VERDUN
TOLD BY KRUGER


AIoorhead young man, who has beer
In active service in France for oveI
q year with the Fourth Park com.
pany OF the air service. He was one
OF Liberty Party that visited the
wonderful fort, the strongest in
France, after the signing of the arm
istice
In post script to his letter Sergt
Kruger, referring to the visit to the
underground fort, writes: THE great
majority of visitors so away without
knowing Of its existence, and guess
we were not supposed to go in there
The French let an American so any
where or do anything he wishes any
where in France, any time and any
how"
THE best part of ALL" continues
the postscript, was that the mem
bers of our party who promised to
guide US had been there several times
and never even suspected the exist
eflce of the fort underground"
The account of the visit follows:
Now, / will tell you about the
Liberty Party l was on last Sunday.
The censorship is pretty well done
away with now, at least our TOP"
Sergeant says that the only way to
find out is write what you please and
see IL 1t goes through. Here goes.
I'VE went up to Verdun. We start
ed from here about 500 A. NJ, and
covered the distance, about 40 k, in
a little less than two hours-we only
had a Packard truck. The city is a
wonderful thing to see. The ancient
walls and raLnparts are still in place
and they make the ones at Toul look
pretty small and insignificant by COM
parison. Passing through the Vari-
Gus gates and places makes one feel
as though he were living several GEN.
turies before the era of airplanes and
steam engines. / wouldn't have been
d bit excited to have seen a party Of
knights in armor come riding ahead
of me.
1--WE went up to the Cathedral and
went all through it. One isn't suppos-
ed TO come without a pass and accom-
panied by an officer, but we went all
over and no one stopped us until we
started to look at the wonderful alter
and the marble pillars. A French Of
ficer came and very plainly desired
our room more than our company, but
we No Compreed' and went right on
looking The FTenchman then called
an American captain over who obedi-
emily kicked us out However, we
had already seen all that there was
to see so went without demur.
From the Cathedral we had o,
splendid view of the city-I mean the
ruins. have an idea that Pompeii
must look like Verdun. All the roofs
are caved in or full Of great gaping
holes and wish had centime for
every broken [ lie in Verdun. The
gar of the shells arriving and explod-
ing all the time has broken them all.
Along the streets there are many
houses that are apparently whole, but
there are no windows left anywhere.
THE walls of some houses lean
gTotesquely outward while those Of
others quite near are caved inward,
fall any part Of a second There
are whole blocks where the houses
were destroyed so long ago that quite
d respectable amount of vegetation
has sprung up amidst the ruins. 1t
certainly was a wonderful honor to
have been a defender of Verdun, but
can't help being just a wee bit
thankful that didn't have to earn
that honor.
I'VE camped in the Place Jean dare
and cooked a pretty good dinner and
left for Fort Douamont at 1900 M.
sharp. We soon passed through the
through Bellville and Bras. The for
rner is the mere shell of a town but
the latter isn't even that. There
isn't wall standing except where the
piles of rubbish have been heaped UP
up the men cleaning off the main road
Great lines of camouflage stretch
along the roads and also screen the
top Of it frem observation points at
n high altitude. We rode for about
three miles through a country SO des-
olate no words can even describe 1t.
The worst of all was the signs of
former prosperity still showing in the
form OF blackened stumps of trees
and rubble heaps that were once
farm houses. We had a man with us
who had been there often and he
had promised us to show us the fort
We climbed through miles and miles
OF hills so pounded by shell fire that
they looked like huge domes of sand.
The whole surface OF the earth was
loose from the effect Of the high ex-
plosives with which the hills had been
bonnbarded for four years-and during
all Of 1916 there was one continual
rain of shells against the place. The
only green thing there was in sight
was where the gas shells had ex-
ploded far under ground and the poi
II haven't room here nor the time
to tell the history of the fort, but
you have doubtless read it. ANY
description Of the Battle Of Verdun
will certainly have it.
I've gradually worked up to the
remains OF the fort. 1t was once at
the extreme top Of the hill, but Ger
man shells moved the top to another
place. We thought that we were see
ing lot when we came across some
concrete walls with little slits in 4
them. We saw some Frenchmen in
little room iii one but couldn't make
them understand u5 so we went on.
Farther on we came TO another frog
and made him accompany us as a
guide. He took us up TO the top cf
the hin by way of a path and then
suddenly went into a little hole in the
wall of the old fort We asked him
what was in there and what GO YOU
think he said? The Sort.
I'VE went in and saw tha most
wonderful thing OF our young lives.
The whole OF that hill was honey
combed, to a depth OF 600 feet, with
passages, rooms, corridors, and gall
Jeries. There were great kitchens,
store rooms, small railroads, barracks
and everything underground. The
WAAoAC VI ~ WdS WdllSu HIGH Will
rocks and cement. The Frenchmen
there gave us refreshments, after a
fashion, and we went all over.
II was in the gun turrets-what
is left of them-and also in the Com
manding Odlcer's room, where the
defense of the fort was planned and
directed. The Germans were once
right in there and held half the fort
the water supply, but the
French hung on without water or food
and finally drove them out. saw
where their barricades were and the
scars on the walls made by bullets