The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-20
CORDIALITY OF OFFICERS

ian officers from the highest to the lowest. That they appreciated the en- trance of the United States into the war and were confident of our doing wonderful things, they were unani- nous in declaring.
 "A colonel told me to be ready the next morning to go with him at a certain hour and he would take me up to the front We rode in a staff car fer several miles and then stopped to let me see an aerial battle between the planes of the Huns and the Cam adians. The airplanes were so high they could hardly be seen with the naked eye, but we watched the fight with keen interest until the Boche fliers were driven back of their lines. A German sausage" balloon also was chased back by the Canadians before it could make any observations
 "As we rode along the road where one of the decisive battles of the war had been fought the colonel pointed out all the places of interest and ex- plained the disposition of all the va rious units. It had not been long since the fight had taken place and the trenches of both sides were still plainly evident, despite the ravagcs of weeks of constant bombardment.
 TESTING GAS RESPIRATOR
 We soon came to little sheet iron shack, where I was given gas re- spirator. l tested it casually and ex- pressed myself as being ready to pro- ceed. However this was not to be until l spent sometime in a gas chamber to make it absolutely certain that it would not ak...The Huns seem to take particular pleasure in 'gassing' the Canadians, so they take no chances on leaky respirators.
 "A little further on the road we secured steel helmets and with the other equipment I had brought with me was ready for the firing line.'
 We stopped at brigade headquarters few minutes while received my or. ders. Here I had an opportunity ta inspect the great masterpiece of Ger. man handiwork--a 'dugout.' The Boehe is nothing if not efficient in this line of work. He builds them two, three and even four stories deep. They are mod els of trench comforts. Those he had built in the. sector I visited were among the finest he has ever con. structed. He occupied what is consid- cred an impregnable position, a loca- ton he probably would have held un- til the war was over but fof the ter rific attacks of the Canadians
 HUNS SPELLING FIERCELY
 From here went down to support battalion headquarters. The Huns were shell1ng so fiercely we had to make a considerable detour in order to avoid the fire. I had luncheon in a dugout at battalion headquarters. Shells were dropping all around on the outside, but it made no particular difference. Before we concluded our meal a mes- senger came in and announced that three men had been killed by one of the shells just outside the dugout. It was too bad, all agreed. but the mat ter occasiQned no further comment. "Cest Ia guerre.' you know The men had been carrying food from the bat talion headquarters to company in the trenches.
 T took a turn around the country along the support lines. Two fine French towns (that is, before the war) were in ruins. Thousands of buildings had been destroyed not thing was left. save the piles of brick and stone, to mark the places where fine buildings had formerly stood For miles around there was not a thing that resembled human habitation. These cities looked like long-abandoned American brick yard. have seen large areas in Amer lean cities which had been completely devastated by some conflagration, but -AS'cA hdu WttAeSSeQ dHytHlh6 WlhSii so thoroughly depicted the ravages of warfare. Shell holes were so thick and so close together that 1t was hard to walk over the ground. Here and there could pc seen leg. or an arm, or possibly a skull of some dead Hun which had been ussearthea by recent shell. Graves were everywhere. and the neat little wooden headstones told a silent but effective story of the terrific struggle which had taken place here but few months be- fore. Here is but replica of what 1 had seen for several miles along the road. as had come down from divisional headquarters that morning-never end- ing lines of little graves along both sides of the road.
 SEE ROCHE TRENCHES
 Although we could see the Roche trenches quite we'll from support bat talion headquarters. 1t was several miles walk to follow the winding hath of fhe