The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-02-07


blood that were once human beings.
Over in a far darkened corner were
several stretchers holding poor
wrecks of flesh set apart to die
Only a faint gurgling sound came
from them.
TWO wounded officers were taken
out and loaded into the waiting car.
Then came great noise like tearing
and ripping, scream and a binding
flash just at one of the rear wheels
OF the car: Followed smoke and fly
ing dirt and steel. It cleared away
and showed more than half the am
bulance body shot to pieces.
The two officers, poor devils, on
their. way tout of it, bound for good
beds, lots of food and rest, were gone
for a greater rest in the next world.
Inc torn bodies were taken from the
car flooring-then all hell broke
loose. Shell after shell crashed into
the men and wagons at the corner
and as the gas shells followed on the
wake of the high explosives the
nerves of all broke and the only wild
impulse was to fly away from it all.
Ten men and fifteen horses were
killed, and eight wagons blown up
Whlle one could snap a finger. To
add to the total Generalization caus-
ed by the gas shells, several high ex-
plosiVes fell on a large ammunition
dump, and amid sky rockets, bursting
shells, bombs and grenades, red, blue,
green and yellow powder, the white
faced men ran wild eyed.
lx-s l..
ingly; the other horses dragged their
wagons over the dead and wounded
men. while more free horses, many
with gaping wounds, ran terror
stricken past the exploding field.
For more than two hours this hav-
| &C of screaming and breaking shells
| kept up. The air was heavy with the
suffocating fumes of gas and smoke
yet still the guns rolled on, now dy-
| ing down and again rising to drum
fire intensity, while we tried to com
fort the brave wounded in the stink
ing room scantily sheltered by a few
| logs and sand-bags.
1t was not until the first few
streaks of coming day appeared ovel
the desolate destroyed hills that thu
bombardment lessened a bit. W.
cleared up the road of some of it
wreckage, human and otherwise, an(
filled in a few of the larger holes will
whatever came to hand. To thi
country one might aptly apply thu
trite biblical determination of Desola
ton
Stream of Dead
Up the valley between the long low
hills was the broken road. The hill
themselves were all ashes and crush
ed rock, with one shell crater touch
ing another. Here and there stra.
shells screamed overhead and burs
on the hillsides and a cloud of dirt,
smoke drifted 1azily on the morning
breeze. Nearer at hand and alonl
the roadside were the newly dea'
horses. Here lay one with all hi
legs blown off and another withou
a head.
A big shell had struck in a GENE
terry of about thirty graves. On tn
edge of the shell crater three boot
protruded and on the other side
single arm stuck out of the groun
and seemed clutching frantically a
the air. Down farther on the road
near the ruins of a supply Wagon
were parts of a mans body, tire
arms and a couple of legs lying in
bloody shell hole. On the side wer
the battered pieces of a field battery
and blood covered all the debris.
contradictory orders. The hospita
was in a great big chateau, surround
ed by large grounds, and many road
Often a big French ambulance, al
ter getting lost on the roads aroun
the chateau, would again land at tn
hospital building, where the load ha
originally been taken on, and here eS
cited, crazy stretcher bearers woul
pull out the wounded, give them an
other dressing and put them again i
an ambulance. The hospital me
wouldn't listen to the explanations c
questions of drivers. One wounde
Frenchman told me he had made 81
different trips around the chatea
grounds before he finally got on hi
way to the base hospital.
Up at the lines the roads were a
shell pitted and covered with the dc
bris of the tumbled houses of tn
|
way, which at this point of the secto
ran quite close to the trenches, ha
: been lined with big trees. The tree
: knocked down by the shells, cause
US great trouble at night-Fords wer
never much good at climbing tire
trunks.
When the road on the highway wa
not badly broken up, good time coul
be made with empty cars. One day
chap in our section went along tn
road in his empty car on the way I
l the dressing station.
The Germans, their trenches onl
=. 90 yards from the road, shelled til
l car heavily. AS the shells crept u
l behind the car the driver went taste
: and faster, and just as the increasin
I Continued on Page 81
HnEATEQT nRhfnTn