The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1918-08-08
CHAPTER XII.

The inhabitants of Cernay who had
remained. mostly old people. were all
gathered in barn because of the fear
OF spies. Here they were guarded by
soldiers. AS the enemy bombardment
always occurred at a certain hour, our
commander thought that somebody in
the village was in communication with
the enemy by means of concealed
telephone. 1t was even discovered
that the hands of the church clock had
been turned and at one time stood Mt
six and shortly after at five o'clock.
The spy who signaled the enemy by
means of this clock was not discov-
cred, neither anyone using concealed
telephone instrument. In order to
catch the right one all the civilians
were interned In the barn. These
civilian prisoners were supplied in the
same way the soldiers were, with food
and drink, but were also exposed, like
the soldiers, to the daily bombard-
ments, which in time destroyed the
whole village. Two women and one
child had been killed in this manner
and yet the people were not removed.
Almost daily houses caught fire in the
village and burned down. The shells
were now. falling regularly at eight
o'clock in the evening. They were of
heavy caliber. AT eight o'clock prompt
ly, when the first shell arrived, we. left
the town. There followed, in short in
tervals, fourteen to fifteen shells, the
iron ration" We believed that the
French cannon sending these shells
were brought up somewhere Mt night.
When we returned from our prone
made. as we called the nightly excur-
sion, we were sent to our places in the
trenches. There we were used for ev-
cry kind of duty. One evening we
were called up to fortify farm taken
from the French the previous day. We
had to build machine guns and place
them.
Our camp at Cernay-en-D ermois was
continually under heavy bombardment.
Finally rest became impossible. The
heavy-caliber shells struck the roofs
of the houses and penetrated to the
cellars. The civilians were taken away
after several had been killed by shells.
After about ten weeks in this country
we were sent to another part of the
front. Our destination was kept from
us.
At the depot at Challerange we en-
tered train waiting for us. 1t con-
sisted of second and third class
coaches. The train rolled slowly
through the beautiful country, and for
the first time since the. war began we
saw the light behind the front. All the
depots, crossings and bridges were &C.
cupied by the military. Everywhere
was activity. Long trains loaded with
agricultural machinery Of every vari-
ETY. stood at the larger stations. The
crew of our train consisted of officials
of the Prussian state railways. They
had traversed this country often and
told us that there was no agricultural
machine in all occupied territory. The
same thing happened with all machin-
cry of Industry that could be spared.
Everywhere we saw the finest kind
of machinery en- route to Germany.
In the evening we passed Sedan.
Early the next morning we arrived at
Montmedy. Here we had to leave the
train and were permitted to go to the
city for several hours. MOntmcdy IS
the principal base Of the Fifth army,
commanded by the crown prince. EnOr-
nous stores of war materials were
gathered here Added to this there
was the army field post institute and
the executive Offices Of the railways as
well as q number of hospitals.
It was very lively in Montmedy.
Many wounded men were seen stroll
ling through the city and an especially
large number of officers all at home
were attached to single etapes. In
fautless uniform, carrying riding
whips, they strolled around. This
point was about thirty-five kilometers
behind Verdun and one hundred kilo-
meters from our former position. AS
we marched away shortly after noon
we suspected that we were being
taken to the neighborhood of Verdun.