St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-07-06

could NOT be shelled by the French ar
tillery.
We we're, given a short rest and lay
In Il water-soaked clothing in an old
abandoned trench shivering with cold.
Our hands were swollen to twice their
normal size. They panied so greatly
that we could not hold q bottle to OF
lips. 1t was a terrible sight to see
young and strong men lying on the
ground helpless and broken.
After a short rest we were ordered
to seek for wounded in the burning
houses but we did not find many, for
most of those who had been badly
wounded and unable to save them
selves. were burned to death. Only
the buttons of their uniforms and their
weapons indicated to us to which side
they had belonged.
In some cases, there were not even
these vestiges. Only a little heap of
ashes within the ruins of a house, vas
all that was left Of whole families for
whole streets. During the search most
of US behaved as If we had not taken
part in the terrible events of the last
hour, a IL we had not seen the hor-
rors of this encounter and as If we
had forgotten entirely the danger we
had just escaped.
As to honoring the dead, something
which had been taught us by our moth
ers from infancy, or a fear which the
average person feels toward a body.
there was no sign. My pen would balk
If ! tried to recall the expressions. to
describe the acts soldiers as well as Of
ticers committed to determine the ma
tionality o. sex of the dead. In the
meantime. the battle between our
troops and the French had reached a
climax. Our troops had suffered great
losses but now our turn came.
The German artillery sheIled as we
crossed the enemy's position with
great fury. Our artillery succeeded In
silencing the enemy's batteries and we
tried to take his high positions by
storm.
When we were within 200 meters of
the enemy's. d~efenses, the French ma
chine guns were turned upon us and
we were driven back with enormous
losses.
Ten minutes later, we stormed a
second time and had to retire again
with great losses. We again formed
for attack within the shelter of our
trenches. but the fighting spirit was
gone. But we dared not lose courage,
although the victims of our useless
storming attacks covered the field and
we were able to look at our dead com
rades all about us.
The artillery started up again; re-
endorsements arrived; after half an
hour, We stormed a third time, over
the bodies of our fallen comrades. As
we halted about 20 meters from the
enemy's trench, he withdrew his en-
tire first line. Soon after we saw the
Germans advance along the whole line.
The reason for this unexpected retreat
was explained later when we learned
that the main part OF the French army
had retired some time before. The
heavy toll of life among our comrades
was taken in a mere rear-guard action.
During the mex hour the enemy
abandoned all the heights of the
Meuse. As we reached the crest of
these heights, we could easily over-
look the roads over which the French
had retreated. They were departing in
close formation, in long columns. Our
company and others received orders
TO assemble and soon we pursued the
fleeing enemy. It vas our work to re-
pair roads which had been destroyed
so that they would be passable for our
armies, a task that~was harder in the
burning midday sun, owing to the fact
that the dead and wounded had first to
be disposed of.
The dead bodies were seized by two
men, one at the head and the other at
the feet, and thrown into the ditch.
Corpses were handled exactly as was
ii board TO he used in building a bridge.
Legs and arms were tossed likewise
into the ditch. Dead horses and dam
aged batteries had to be removed. We
were no strong enough to remove dead
horses. We managed to capture a horse
Which Was running wild and hitched
him to the c~arcasses. Corpses hanging
in the trees were left there. No one
cared anything about them.
Canteens and knafsacks of the dead
we're searched for food and drink and
whatever we found was eaten with the
greatest relish.
French soldiers who had died of
sunsrroke covered the road. Others
crawIed to right and left of the road
and waited there for relief or death.
We did not dare TO help them. The
order was TO advance and We had To
march on and on. The captain told US
we had to pursue the fleeing enemy
with all our strength aud much dis
content was manifest on receipt of this
order.
After being on u feet day and
night, Staying like barbarians, taking
no time to eat OF rest. we continued to
receive commands to maintain the pur-
suit with all haste. The captain N
derstood how we felt and tried to
pacify us by friendly conversation.
CHAPTER v.