The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-05-08
CHAPTER XII.

The inhabitants Of Oernay who had
remained mostly old people, were all
gathered In barn because Of the fear
of spies. Here they were guarded by
soldiers. AS the enemy bombardment
always occurred at a certain hour, our
commander thought that somebody In
the village was in communication with
the enemy by means Of a concealed
telephone. It was even discovered
that the hands of the church clock had
been turned and at one time stood at
six and shortly after at five o'clock.
The spy who signaled the enemy by
means Of this clock was not dlscOv-
cred, neither anyone using a concealed
telephone instrument. In order to
catch the right one all the civilians
We're interned in the barn. These
civilian prisoners were supplied In the
same way the soldiers were, with food
and drink, but were also exposed, like
the soldiers, to the daily lombard
ments, which in time destroyed the
whole village. Two women and one
child had been killed In this manner
and yet the people were not removed.
Almost daily houses caught fire in the
village and burned down. The shells
were now falling regularly at eight
o'clock in the evening. They were of
heavy caliber AT eight o'clock prompt
~, when the first shell arrived, we left
the town. There followed, in short In
tervals, fourteen to fifteen shells, the
siron ration" We believed that the
French cannon sending these shells
were brought up somewhere at night
When we returned from our prone
made, as we called the nightly excur-
sion, we were sent to our places in the
trenches. There we were used for ev-
cry kind Of duty. One evening we
we're called up to fortlfy a farm taken
from the French the previous day. We
had to build machine guns and place
them.
Our camp at Cernay- -Dermois was
continually under heavy bombardment.
Finally rest became impossible. The
heavy-caliber shells struck the roofs
Of the houses and penetrated to the
cellars. The civilians were taken away
after several had been killed by shells.
After about ten weeks in this country
we were sent to another part Of the
front. Our destination was kept from
us. es-~aasaa4~ ,s..s-
At the depot at Challerange we en-.
tered q train waiting for us. II con
sisted of second and third class
coaches. The train rolled slowly
through the beautiful country, and fol
the first time since the war began We
saw the light behind the front. All tbs
depots, crossings ami bridges were oc
cupled by the military. Everywhere
was activity. Long trains loaded will
agricultural machinery of every vari
ety stood at the larger stations. Thu
crew OF our train consisted Of officials
of the Prussian state railways. The!
had trayersed this country often an'
told us that there was no agricultural
.machine in all occupied territory. Tn
same thing happened with all machin
cry of industry that could be spared
Everywhere we saw the finest kin
Of machinery en- route to Germany.
In the evening we passed Sedar
Early the next morning we arrived q
Montmedy. Here we had to leave tn
train and were permitted to go to tn
city for several hours. Montmedy
the principal base of the Fifth arm!
commanded by the crown prince. Emo
mons stores of war materials wer
gathered here. Added to this ther
was the army field post institute an
the executive offices Of the railways @
well as number Of hospitals.
Il was very lively in Montmed,
Many wounded men were seen stro
ling through the city and an especial
large number of officers all at hon
were attached to single etapes.
faultless uniform, carrying ridir
whips. they strolled around. Tn
nolnt was about thirty-fve kilometel
behind verdun and one hundred XII
meters from our former position. !
we marched away shortly after noe
we suspected that we were beiI
taken to the neighborhoOd of Verdi
cAAprER Kill.