The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-08-02
MARINE VALLEY A SHAMELESS

Special Cable by Paul Ayres Rockwell, in
 the Chicago Daily News.
 IMl(NITH the French Armies. July S. l WV I have often mentioned in re-
 cent dispatches the magnificent
 work accomplished along the banks of the Marne by the French aerial bombarders
 during the days when the Germans held
 the territory on both sides of that his
 toric stream The other day 1 went up
 and down both banks where the Germans
 had stopped few disastrous days and
 nights and saw ample marks of the enor-
 nous havoc wrought among them by the
 aviators. The bottom land along the Marne is just one continuous scar, where laerial torpedoes and shells fell.
 | Many of these bomb pits would easily
 hold workingmans cottage, so huge are they. From the loose banks of the shell holes, which under the action of the rain are already filling in protrude arms, 'legs and other bits of human wreckage. [ The aviators aimed well. The Marne 1 is thick with the debris of pontoon bridges. half sunken canal boats. and so on, while among the reeds near the banks float the bloated carcasses of men
 and horses. The whole region is ghastiy and reeks with the odor of carrion. Ger
 man soldiers who got away from the place alive and who believe in the old- fashioned Gehenna, must consider that they have already had more than their share of fire and birthstone.
 in rt1, the headquarters of the French army op- erating in the Marne region, we trav- ersed the territory that the Germans
 overran south of the Marne. striking the river valley at Dormans. Premier Glenn enceau was just leaving Dormans after inspecting the battle scene. He was especially interested in the manner in ! which chatau belonging to one of his friends had been pillaged and wrecked by | the Germans. The chateau, where in other times M. Clemenceau frequently
 was guest, had served as the headquar- 1 ters for Prince EiteI Fritz and staff and
 division of the Prussian guard
 l Time had lacked for sending the heav- l fer pieces of furniture into Germany but all the clocks and valuable paintings had disappeared. A huge shell had knocked down one wing of the chateau. The park l had been turned into a cemetery for German soldiers and was Uttered with
 blown down trees, dead horses and war
 supplies of all sorts
 l Domans itself, once a prosperous town. through which I had often passed, was 1 completely in ruins. The main line of
 railroad running from Paris to the east,
 passing through the town, was torn up and the charred remains of long lines of freight cars which the Germans had found on the side tracks were still smol- dering The enemy brought enormous quantities of war material across the river, provnig the vastness of his proi-
 ects I noticed piled up cases containing hundreds of thousands of rounds of
 shells for the ITS and larger cannon and
 and countless boxes of cartridges and
 other ammunition along the roads near
 the river.
 | As we rode along the Marne l realized l munique meant when they said that the l enemy had concentrated an enormous shell fire upon the Marne buckle before
 attempting a crossing. We traversed Dormans, Sauvigny and Courthie-y on the south bank of the river and Passy,