The Nevada County picayune., 1918-10-10
peated daily with ever-increasing vio- lence.
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 certain hour, our commander thought that somebody in the village was in communication with the enemy by means of a concealed telephone. It was even discovered that the hands of the church clock had been turned and at one time stood at 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 lombard 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 bot no French cannon sending these shells were brought up somewhere at 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- 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- 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. It 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 oe- 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. Montmedy Is the prinet.al base of the Fifth army, comman by the crown prince EnoY- nous stl.s9 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 a 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 faultless uniform, carrying riding whips, they strolled around. This point was about thirty-five kilometers behind Verdun and one hundred kil0- meters from our former position. As we marched away shortly after noon we suspected that we were being taken to the neighborhood of Verdun.