The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-12-31
TRIP TO CHATEAU
THIERRY DESCRIBED
BY Lewis k|NLEy

A trip to the Chateau Thierry front,
Belleu Woods, is described by Lewis
Kinley, son of Mrs. Mary Kinley, OF
National Road East, in letter OF
December 9th. Kinley is in the quar-
termaster department in Paris.
After six months of ease so far as
marching has been concerned, l feel
pretty stiff following an all day hike
we made yesterday. We were at Bel
leu Woods, where the hardest fighting
took place. and at Chateau Thierry.
Not house in Chateau Thierry was
untouched by bullets so far as could
see. Large sections of the town are
in complete ruins. The business part
Of the town is to the north of the
Marine river and all this part was oc-
cupied by the Germans. They had an
outpost in a large cathedral tower on
one side of the city which doesn't look
as if the Americans and French had
fired on very much. Where the firing
has been the hottest in the city, the
window stills and castings were full of
holes, and all the lamp posts and
water troughs in the city were riddled
with holes. The town hall was used
by the Germans as an outpost, or OBJ
servation station and the Americans
sure fixed the tower. l imagine 1t
was hit by the YanEs as there was an
American flag sticking up on the top
Of 1t.
1--WE got up on high part of the
town where we could see all over it..
There are some pretty nice stores in
Chateau Thierry and it seemed to be
a busy day-markets open and all.
I'VE started from there on II kilo-
metre 60 miles) hike to Belleu Wood,
and the further we went the more
signs we saw of the Huns hurried re-
treat. About kilometres from the
wood we stopped at an old farm house
to eat our lunch. An old lady made
us coffee, and as We had some heavy
canned things with us, we gave her
some of them. The front of this house
had been smashed by shells, as was
every other building over that part OF
the country. ON the road in front
of the house there was big pile of
German rifle shells. machine gun
belts and other ammunition. On our
1t as we could carry, but a good bit
was left along the roadside later when
We found it was all we could do to
IL.
THE German barbed wire Is inter
esting and not like the kind the
French put up on stakes. The Ger
mans have mile after mile of it only
three or four feet high but hard
enough to get through. The woods
look as if big knife had cut all the
trees to Is or 20 feet from the ground,
and 1t was hard to get through in some
places. We found rifles, helmets and
other souvenirs all through the woods.
There were many large boulders, and
many of them had dugouts under
them
There were French and German
graves in different parts of the woods,
with their rifles. helmets, etc, laid on
top. Below the wood. in the direction
that the Germans retreated, there is
an American graveyard with about $50
graves or more. all alike. with wooden
cross and ed, white and blue decora-
tons with their names on them.
we walked back to Chateau Thier-
ry and took the train from there to
Paris, which is 43 miles away.
President Wilson will be here in
Paris the last Of this week and we
are expecting a big time. The city
IS making great preparations to re-
ceive the Americans coming to the
Peace conference"