Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-11-10
SIR ARTHUR CONAN
DOYLE SEES fight.
Is Spectator When Americans
and Australians Cross Hin
denburg Line.
WOUNDED MOSTLY SMILING
British Author Notes Similarity
Between Men of America
and Australia.

& LONDON. November 9.-Perched atop
British tank out there in the very
center OF mo mans land" Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle. the British novelist. spent
his Sunday. September IS, Watching
Australian and American doughboys
smash through the HindenburE line
around Bellicourt.
IT was about IL o'clock when we
reaShed the edge OF the battle field"
S San H ,a arthur; The program Of the
american divisions were to rush the
front line. The Australian divisions
W. 10 pnss through them and carry
already as We arrived the glad
news came back that the Americans
h ana don, Done their part, and that the
Also that the Germans were standinr
to It like men.
IT was an assured victory upon
that we were ourselves standing far
Forward in ground which had been won
mat hra,,a day. The wounded had been
though some friends who had reached
the line to our left found eighteen
american lads lying dead by the road
On that side the fight was very
severe, and the Germans. who had been
hniat in their huge dugouts. were
and cutting off the aHack. ' '"s
Motoring back. our car was halted
when 'h there was heavy burs, close
street street ar9un revser curve oy In the village
few IN into the air. An instant LATER
our U car rounded the corner. None of
Was All tan ioIset what we saw. There
necks rising and falling. Beside them
a man. with his hand blown off. was
SS from h;s ,n; away, the blood gushing
horscs lay a shattered man, drenchcd
eriinson from head to foot. with two
t s5ra, glazed eyes looking upward
raueS were at hand to help, and we
could only go upon our way with the
shastiE picture stamped forever upon
our memory. Wv"
En- ,, route to the battle front our
car threaded the crowded street be-
u"een the ruins of Templeux, and we
cred ears. with nothing visible sovc
protruding boots, and constant
soream wi or pedestrians. some limping.
some supported by Red Cross men
lew In pain. most of them smilins
selmiS behind cigarettes. Amid them
NY or more, pitiable enough, and yet
l could not pity them, weary. shuft,,nr
nangdoS creatures, with no touch of
ing. 20 'Neir pear
the village was full of Americans
i a'u 80. "a stTaiians. extraordinarily alike
for 'y i a ohe could we'll have fingered.
there the were We're greater interests ahead and and
we pushed on to the east under a
eW% e Mere ean 10 yd of our own shells,
ward lip OF the Egg Redoubf 0oo
yards from the Hindenburg line when
that it takes two to make battie
Up to now we had seen only one. Now
Two shells burst in quick succession
Of Earth went vent of n,o us TIA and ,r
Whizz- bangs" remarked our soldier
s sadde casually: Personally 1 felt less
in the fact that they,were there ar ali
We thought we had done nrettv
well o,, TO , get within 1000 wards OF the
Of good fortune: for an Austroltan
gunner captain volunteered TO rush
us ~, forward TO Some coign of vantage
ward no, once more. still over a dull
barren plain sloninC upwards with lit
he he sign o,io, OF az, Ire; Here and there was
1t safe distance SUDDENLY we ca pne
upon tank-the erendstand which
our Young gunner had selected.
FROM TOP OF TANK
On top Of this we clambered, and
and there, at our very feet and less
, whIcn 500 90 yards ards away was The rift
burg, line only few hours before
On the dun slope beyond it. under our
very eyes. was even now being fought
a 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
rage 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 fro drnnt Of us lay 2 village. It
sition ran through it. 1t lay quiet
With the eye. one, could see rusty red
vie had ayaiied nothing. nor hsd the
yond 1t, besideI the village of Neuroy.
there was a long, white line. clouds Of
nale vanor. spouting up AGAINST a
long. white. swirlinE cloud upon the
darp Plain. told of the strife in front
of us, With my glasses | saw what
looked like tanks. but whether
wrecked or in hiding I could not say.
There was the battlc-the greatest Of
all ha.tles.hut nowhere could | see
moving figure. IT Is true that all
the noises of the pit seemed to rise
from that lonely landscape, but noise
was always with us, go where we
would"
FRIEND Of PRISONERS