The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-02-20


First we swept out our quarters
cleaned up the fireplace of the
going out, tore down timbers
might make up a good hot fire
lg fire that night the inspector
is and the world, so far removed
i'd told him some Of the section
doing, four of the boys got out
uned up for some of the old ia
over the Teuton hordes
1 often used to wonder what this
old building looked like and what it
was used for before the war. 1t was
most likely a quiet abbey or a nun
merry, with quiet robed figures gliding
noiselessly up and down the polished
corridors, clangings of prayer bells
and the murmur of prayers on the
evening air.
Below was the little village, all the
| little old houses crowding the mar
row streets, the smoke from the Chin
neys curling up into the evening air.
1 used to wonder, too, what they call
ed the hill behind the old abbey Did
the village peovle ever think of it as
| Hill 304? And I wonder if they ever
imagined the dead and dying that
were to be piled up around the shell
rutted sides of Dead Mans Hill.
There is a tale told in France that
| Dead Mans Hill was called before the
war Dead Elm Hill, which in French
sounds almost like its present name;
and when men were dying by thous-
ands and tens of thousands on the
bloody slopes of this hill during the
fierce fighting of 1916 in the Verdun
attacks the name of Dead Elm was
turned around and soon became Dead
Man.
It's funny, too, to compare the
names given to a certain place by
both the French and Germans. They
quite often are a great deal alike in
significance. 1 know one point on
the front, a strip OF woods where
fighting was nearly always terrifically
hot
The French called the place wild
ow's Wood" while the Boches named
it Witches Cauldron;" they both
had a good idea of the holiness of
the place.
Four Cars are Hit by Shells
Back of this old building there IS
a light line just below the crest of the
hill. This is the first line trench of
the French, while the Hun has taken
up his position just along the top of
the ridge of the hill-Hill 304 this
is, you know. The trenches at this
point are about 500 yards back of the
building.
And about 200 yards behind you
see the remains of the village. The
|, village at this time was inhabited by
rats only. There is very little left of
the abbey building, save this portion
of the main front wall propped up
,, behind by fallen walls, timbers, and
debris. On the right of the build
ing is a barricade of sandbags and
, big stones. This is to strengthen the
: walls over the wine cellar used as the
first aid station. Just to the right of
the Red Cross is the entrance to the
underground tunnels.
You may notice many men standing
about the courtyard, but they didn't
do anything like that while we were
there during the winter attacks. We
had four cars shattered in this court
yard and 1 saw quite a few good men
in the stretcher bearer corps gel
theirs around the building.
One case was real tragic: A young
stretcher bearer had been up at the
front line trenches for two weeks and
70 o15
!, building and drew wounded in the
vaults. While he had been up at the
lines his work had consisted of duck
ing in and out of No Mans Land
: lodging shrapnel, shell and bullet.
So he felt happy to come back tc
the cellars He was in the old house
just fifteen minutes, when, on step
@ ping out in to the courtyard, a shell
a exploded nearby, and one of the frag
ments pierced his heart.
k 5000 Graves Tell of Terrors
n Before we got away from this rat
q trap sort of place the main walls wer,
& either all caved in or filled with shell
IS holes. When we first got to thi
e place there were thirty-four graves
y when we left there were more thai
But graveyards often grow NOR
is quickly than that; 1 know anothe
If place where there originally were no
IS thirty graves; and in forty days Their
lie were $500.
IS During the winter attacks they us
d ed to pile the dead bodies all aroun
rs the courtyard of this chateau. An
I've seen EN- stacked all along tn
y sides of the walls and half way ou
n into the portion of the field wher
lie the tree stumps are. One night durin
~ the winter months there, was a hi
lie pond that was frozen solid, but ha
cracked clear across. The ice wa
e, two feet thick and the crack in on
~ place was about the same width.
s, Four of us, coming into the post
es at different times, all hit a hind whee
lie into the crack and all four of us &C
m stuck. We all got out with assistanc
except the last chap who broke hi
rear spring on the bump. We pushe
~ his car around the house corne
which we thought would enable tn
lie car to stay there till morning. b.
Sc when our mechanic came for it j
ed the morning he needed a sack t
IS, gather it up; an eight inch Boch
IS. shell had landed squarely on top
ne the ambulance during the night.
p The road out of this place was onl
he about five feet wide and awfully ru
We ted and broken up. Often during tn
a pitfh black nights of winter we use
On toffind our way out Of the place ju