The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-11-12
GreWsome Sights of Battle Fail
to Shake Nerves of
Yanks.
QUICKLY ADAPT THEMSELVES
Admiration Of French and British Vet
Grams IL Aroused by Conduct Of
Americans on Bloody Bat
tIefieIds of France.


American troops in recent advances
have gladdened the hearts Of veteran
British and French who have observed
them, as well as filled with pride their
own officers.
The horror of warfare is more ap-
parent during an offensive when an
army is advancing than at any other
time; even during a defensive action
in retreat. Attacking troops advance
over the enemy's positions, dotted with
| dead and dying, then dig in and fight
among the cOrpses and MANNED. Often
In a cOunter-attack they are Temperate
ly thrust back a few yards, and there
dig In and fight again, this time among
the bodies of their own fallen COM
rades.
When their advance becomes deeper
and the enemy's retreat more general,
as in Won BOehm's retirement from the
Marine to the Vesle, the terrain be-
comes even more CHASTITY. A wide belt
Of country is Uttered with dead men
and dead horses. The advancing army,
eager to maintain contact with the
enemy at all times, has no time to,
bury or burn these corpses, respec-
lively. The supporting troops follow
ing up the advance guards must live
and eat among these grewsome sights,
Never Feased Them.
Fresh, untried Americans, who had
not seen the frightfulness of war, al
though they had been trained In its
artifice and had been in the line in
quiet sectors, traversed the CHASTITY
country ike veterans. never turning
a hair at the sight Of dead, friends
or foes, even when they came upon
such sights as Reddy farm, Bellevue
farm, Cierges, Seringes ct Nesles and
Sergy.
In these places, particularly the |
first two mentioned, the bodies Of the |
Prussian Guardsmen were literally
lying in heaps, for these picked troops
had been told to maintain their
strong point positions until death, and
in most eases they followed orders.
The dead were in the distorted posi-
lions that indicated how the end had
come to them Those killed in ma
chine-gun pits were smashed to bits,
the effect of Hand grenades and bombs
which American advance guards had
tossed IN among them after working
round their TANKS and getting in be-
hind them.
Occasionally one saw German snip
srs or machine gunners sprawled fiat
IN The ground at The foot Of a tree
after they had been shot out Of their
positions among It's foil
lge. The most sickening sights were
where bodies of the enemy had at
empted to make stands in bitches or
reside sunken roads and had been
raped by American enfiIade machine
,un fire. The deadly automatic rifles
lad ripped through whole lines of
Germans, and investigation frequently
bowed that every mans body was
ierced by seven or eight bullets and
hat frequently the same bullet passed
trough three or four men. These
Orpses looked like heaps Of rags or
iscarded uniforms and equipment, so
losely did they overlap one another.
No Trace Of Nervousness.
But, despite all, the Americans
larched forward. stopped three or
our times day for meals, and then
lade camp, and slept at night amid
ne horrible surroundings without ever
DING more than showing surprising
reliminary interest in the matter. If
ley saw corpse In khaki they looked
over closely to see If they knew who
was. Only occasionally did they
ave time to inter 1t; that was left to
le burying parties that followed them
p. AS they walked through woods
I'D fields to get water or supplies, they
aplanted rifles. bayonets down, In the
'ound to mark the spot Of every dead
merican they discovered.
But there was no trace Of nervous
ess and no evidence Of any Of the
en- worrying or brooding over the
tie Of their fallen comrades. The u
rpses were entirely impersonal to
EN- and never ratified even the new
recruit.
The doughboys showed no back u u
ardness about appropriating Luger y,
tomato pistols, the most priced a
uvenir to be had, from dead Boches, K
r did they hesitate to pluck off we'll tr
helmets from the pates Of BIT
IN cadavers. pc