The Parisian. (Paris, Tenn.) 1907-1962, 1918-07-05
THE DRIVE FOR AMlENS
+. G. Pip


and it was then that the Germans
were to make the rush from their
trenches to the first line of the Brit
ism.
To the surprise of the British, and
to the French it was then the Ger
mans came in solid mass formation.
the same formation that Napoleon
used in his last desperate struggle,
Many of the British had been killed
in the barrage, but others were there
hanging on with true British grit.
As that wave of Germans, a sol
id mass, came across the land between
the British and German trenches,
the heavy guns of the British open
ed on them. They had but to fire.
They could not miss the enemy. The
Germans sank to their death by thou
sands before those guns. But the
war-mad managers behind them had
planned for just such slaughter of
their own men. With the death
struggle of the first wave of Ger
mans, came second, uniforms enw,
hearts beating fast and brains born
up with the stimulus of rum and
ether. They, too, went down before
the terrific fire of the same British
guns.
The third wave of men came and
third wave of men died.
Thousands more came in the fourth
wave, and were piled dead above the
bodies of their comrades.
So it went, wave after wave, the
German generals determined to make
''the Kaiser's own battle" a victory
by wearing out are British guns with
German human flesh.
The British gunners actually be-
came heart-sick with killing the poor
beings who marched to their death
or the orders of their own cruel gen
erals.
When the ninth wave of men had
come and died, the cannon in the first
line of British defense became so
hot they could not be fired any more.
The gunners took off the breech
locks and retired to the second line
of defense.
On came the tenth wave of Ger
mans, there to meet the fate of the
nine that had gone before. On came
others, sacrifices to the will of an
autocracy determined to fasten on
the rest of the world the same mil
itarism made these subjects give up
their lives.
But the German generals had more
Ten to feed into the barrage of the
second line of British guns, and feed
them; fed them until more British
generals. were sickened by the sight
and fired more from duty than ha-
tred--except such hatred that must
arise in men with red blood and
hearts of human beings for generals
who will make such a sacrifice OF
human life.
So human flesh wore down more
steel, men paid the toll with their
lives until more British guns became
too hot to be fired.
Wave after wave and column after
column persisted before the defense.
Stalwart men brought from the Rus
sian front, old men forced into SER
vice, mere boys in their teens, gave
up their lives to- the god of war;
mllitarism was showing off at it's best
and its worst.
AT terrible cost of life human
beings wore down the last line of
British defense and troops shattered
and weary, but still buoyed by re-
naming effects of the stimulants
bore on to the west, even past AL
bert, and dangerously close to the
coveted goal, Amiens.
And there they were when we all
reached that city on the fifth day of
the battle, the day of great slaugh-
ter the day on which it seemed to.
many that they might succeed, br.
the very day on which they were sto)tv
ped in the open. With the effect of
the ether and rum gone, weary and
worn, the men who had passed trench
and cannon and entanglements were
brought to a halt, where there were
no entertainments. There they were
held, held until reinforccments could
come, held by the valiant British un-
til teh brilliant French troops could
reach them.
Let US pause here for a thought.
II the German generals and the Ger
man military party will sacrifice their
own men as they surely did sacrifice
them to gain a point in strategy,
what would they do to America and
our allies if they should gain final
victory in the war? We should think
of this when it comes to aiding our
government and the auxiliary work
ers in their efforts to carry on the
struggle to right victory, to right
and lasting peace.
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