The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-11-17
Nv WILLIAM j. BUTLER.

London, Nov. 16-Perched atop
ter almost OF No Mans Land, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. the British nov
elist. spent his Sunday, September 20,
watching Australian and American
Idoughboys smash through the Hin
denburg line around Bellicourt.
| 1T was about II o'clock when we
reached the edge of the battlefield"
the day was already clear in our
heads American divisions were to
rush the front line. The Australian
! divisions were to pass through them
and carry the front line forward.
| Already as we arrived the glad
news came back that the Americans
| had done their part, and that the
! Australians had just been Hnleashed.
Also that the Germans were standing
to IL like men.
| TT was an assured victory upon
which we gazed, achieved so rapidly
that we were ourselves standing far
forward in ground which had been
won that day. The wounded had
been brought in. and | saw no
,corpses. though some friends who
lhad reached the line to our left found
eighteen American lads lying dead by
| the roadside.
"On that side the fight was very
severe and the Germans. who had
been hidden in their huge dugouts,
were doing their usual trick of emery
ing and cutting off the attack
Motoring back. our car was halted
when there was a heavy burst close
ahead around curve in the village
tsfre.ttA "A geyser of red brick dust
flew up into the air. An instant later
our car rounded the corner. None Of
us will forget what we saw. There
was tangle of mutilated horses. their
inecks rising and falling. Beside them
a man. with his hand blown off. was
staggering away. the blood gushing
from his upturned sleeve. Beside the
horses lay a shattered man. drenched
crimson from head to foot. with two
great glazed eyes looking upward
through a mask of blood, Two COM
radcs were at hand TO help, and we
could only go upon our way with the
IghastIy picture stamped forever upon
our memory.
EN- route to the battlefront our
car threaded the crowded street be-
tween the ruins of Templeux. ana we
met the wounded coming back. cover
ed cars. with nothing visible save
Iprotruding boots. and constant
stream OF pedestrians, some limping,
some with bandagcd arms and faces.
some supported by Red Cross men. II
new IN pam, most VI them SiflHiHS
grimly behind cigarettes. Amid them
came the first clump Of prisoners.
nifty or more. pitiable enough. and
yet could not pity them, weary
shutting. hangdog creatures, with no
touch of nobility in their features or
their bearing.
THE village was fun of Americans
and Australians. extraordinary alike
in type One could well have fingered,
g,, all Of TINT httt
there were greater interests ahead
and we pushed on to the east under a
screaming canopy of our own shells.
We were standing near the east
ward lip Of the Egg Redoubt. 1000
yards from the Hindenburg line, when
1t was first brought to our attention
that II takes two to make battle.
Up to now we had seen only one.
Now two shells burst In quick success
sion forty yards in front of us and a
spray of earth went into the air.
, Whizz- bangs remarked our soldier
guide casually. Personally, l felt less
tkeenly interested in their names than
in the fact that they were there at all
! I'VE thought we had done pretty
well to get within 1000 yards of the
famous line, but came a browning bit
of good fortune; for an Australian
gunner captain volunteered TO rush
us forward to some coign of vantage
known to himself. So ii was East
ward no! once more, still over dull.
barren plain sioping upwards with
/ little sign of life. Here and there was
the quick fun of bursting shell. but
Il 4 n safe distance Suddenly we came
upon a tank-the grandstand. which
our young gunner had selected.
| ION top of this we Chamber and
there, at our very feet and less than
500 yards away, was the rift which
had been torn in the Hindenburg
4 line only few hours before. On
the dun slope beyond II under our
very eyes was even now being fought
II part of that great fight where at
last the children of light are beating
down to earth the forces of darkness.
! 1t was there. We could see it. And
yet how little there was to see,
THE Australians were ahead where
the screen of the Boche smoke bar
.ge marked their progress, In the
sloping fields, which at that point
emerged out of the moor. the victo
rious Americans. who had done their
part. were crouching
I'm front of us lay village 1t
was Bellicourt. The Hindenburg po-
sition ran through 1t. 1t lay quiet
ienough, and with the glass or even
with the eve one could see rusty red