Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-06
FIND STARVED HUNS
IN CAP TUREO TOWNS
Fere Hospitals Filled With Dead
Who Had Been Deserted
When Allies Approached.

A dispatch sent from Fere-et-Tardenois
soon after its capture by the Allies, gives
a graphic picture of the horrors of war. II
reads:
Friday was the first day Fere-en-
Tardenois was not under the German
artillery fire since the Germans evacuated
the village.
The French and Americans have al
ready started to restore the shell-swcpt
village. group of American engineers
under a lieutenant from North Carolina
TODAY worked side by side with French
engineers repairing the roads and streets,
and other detachments were busy burylng
the German dead.
Previous to evacuating Fcrc-cn-l ar
denois the Germans destroyed virtually
everything which could be made use OF
mirrors, beds and furniture.
There was not a single house which
had not been shelled or dvnamlted.
Most of the stone houses are mere shells.
with gaping holes in the roofs and sides.
Some houses were totally demolished, and
the church stands with many large holes
In the roof and sides.
Virtually the only things IN Fere-en-
Tardenois that are nearly intact are the
weather cock on the church stceple and
the cobblestones of the streets. The trees
in the village square were twisted "a If by
cyclone bv the farewell shells of the Ger
mans.
In Vilcneuve, occupied Wednesday.
the French found % villagers who vir-
tually had been German prisoners for
almost two months When the Germans
entered Villeneuve the villagers refused to
depart They all slept In the same cellar
for protection, and during the day would
not associate with the Germans, even re-
fusing TO eat German food. The villagers,
all Of them elderly with the exception OF
eeven-year-old boy and an lS-year-oid
girl, had stock of -four canned goods,
chickens and vegetables they had raised
themselves. They worked IN their gardens
all dav, encountering the Germans only
when going 10 the village pump for water
When the French came 10 Nilleneuve.
they found 25 wounded or dead Germans in
cots In the village church. Several bad
apparently died of starvation. so hurried
was the German retreat.
The Germans had been using the church
as hospital, with GO iron beds, all Ger
man made
In another village the Germans had the
church filled with mattresses, taken
from the homes of the people There we're
great piles of brass and copper and church
vestments, all boxed, ready for shipment
70 GERMANY The brass and copper had
apparently been assembled from other
villages. and included kitchen utensils.
faucets and other articles.
A large sign in German at the entrance
of the church reads: Remove hats upon
entering
Down the street German sign stretch
ed across the roadway, reads Captured
arms and loot must be sorted here
The sign bears a hand pointing TO where
8 house once stood. This building Is now
a mass of ruins, the result of dynamite or
other explosive used by the retrcatlng
Germans.
From Fere-en-T -Tardenois valley
stretches northwest to Saponay and be
yond, and this valley on Friday was
great battlefield.
The roadwavs arc now Uttered with
ammunition. wagons and dead horses,
some with their drivers as they fell when
struck by the shells Of the French-Amerl-
can allies. Many Of the wheat fields arc
partly harvested, with the wheat stacked
the Germans having reapcd what the
French peasants had planted.
II was into this valley of death that
the French infantry came Friday morning
as the Germans withdrew through the
valley north of Saponay. French and
American shells followed the Germans as
they went From the hill to the west and
northwest of Saponay the French came
from woods ID a raInStorm from clouds
30 low that the treetops and clouds seem
ed to meet, and under their barrage the
French marched into Saponary.
To the northeast, the Americans were
advancing under the same conditions TO
70 the woods east of the forest Of Nesles
and the valley running north of Saponay
II WAS here that the French and Amer
cars met and side by SIDE continued
their progress northward-