Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-13

Special Gable to Euening Public Ledger
CopyriOht. 1918, by NetO York Times Co.
With the French Armies, Sept 13.
Once again there is pause in the
battle on the Somme.Aisne front. 1t
is more apparent than real, for from
Flanders to Rheims, actions on a
minor scale-preparatory for greater
events-are continuous.
Everywhere on these sectors the AL.
lies are "nibbling" forward, seeking or
sdeveloping weak points in the German
iline of resistance. Meanwhile the work
/. guns and material IS proceeding with
tremendous energy throughout the
area behind the Allied front. What
that task means l will try TO Illus
trate by a description of trip that
VI made through a region twice devas.
tated by fire and high explosive.
Is My itinerary was Noyon, Guiscard,
Ham, Nesle, Roye and Lassigny and
back past the blood-stained hill of Pie
ment through the Thiescourt massif
to Compiegne. Noyon. as related In a
sSprevious dispatch, is mere shell with.
out shelter for man or beast, such walls
Jas remain standing bear innumera-
BILE boche placards pointing out col
fslection depots for everything that can
have the least value. Old iron, rags,
vessels Of brass, cartridge or shell
ceases. nothing is forgotten and here
and there-where the enemy has not
had time to remove it's the damning
notice of "plunder depot" to insure
that the place has been stripped to the
bare walls.
: Along the road from Noyon to Guis-
card French armored cars and cavalry
drove the boches too swiftly for them
to blow up either the highway or the
light railroad that runs beside it. Even
the telegraph poles are cut down on
seither side of it, so that nothing breaks
the wide vista of the plateau whose
trees We're all massacred in the boche
retreat of last year. At Guiscard also
THE enemy was too hurried for devasta-
ton, but in the central square was a
twisted medley of iron that once was
German camions, and the stark and
horrible bodies of men and horses bear
wit to the terrible work of the AL.
lied bomb planes.
German Stores Captured
Further on the crest OF the plateau
above Ham big German store depot,
formed rich booty for the French. An
attempt had been made to set fire to
st, but the time pressed, too greatly
and only one corner was destroyed.
As I examined what appeared to be
SSmall mines floating down the river
Rgainst the Allied bridges a heavy
Bhell burst near the roadside, some
200 yards behind me. In the whole
trip 1t was the sole instance of the
enemys spending explosive on the
zone behind the front he kpows is
lost to him.
Ham was still afire. But one OBJ.
sect had been spared in the whole
fown-a life-siZe bronze statue of Roy,
one of Napoleon's generals. in the
square. with an incription on the
pedestal which this war more than
ever has justified. "The Appeal of
Honor and Duty Never Goes Unheard
In France"
On the eastern outskirts is the GEM
etery, which is untouched. The
French graves, among which are those
Edmond Genet, Lafayette pilots. who
were killed in the spring of last year
have not been despoiled of wreaths as
often has happened to decorate new
German graves beside them.
The country from Crapeau Mesnil
to beyond Plemont was a scene of in
credible desolation, SCARED with the
wire and trenches of four years OF
I, continuous fighting. Here fresh shell
had disinterred the whitened bones OF
q skeleton which had been buried since
1914; there was an uptorn dugout dot
ted with dead Germans. Some old set
I Elements aud perhaps two-score houses
were still standing. Lassigny had beer
literally smashed out of existence. Only
grass.grown stone heaps told where
the town had been.
A The whole region is torn and river
as II beaten with a gigantic hammer
1t lies untillable and uninhabitable
blasted by fire from heaven like So
) dom and Gomorrah.