The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1918-08-09
BATTLEFIELD a. SCENE f
FRIGHTFUL CARNAGE
Fearful Evidences of Death Struggles
Everywhere; Tanks Wrecked By
KrHsp Guns; Piles 0f German

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Everywhere; Tanks Wrecked By
KruEp Guns; Piles OF German
COrpEeE.
American Army pr the Marne
The battlefield over which the French
E&nd Americans began their bin coun-
offensive between the Aisne and
the Marne Rivers presents a. scene Of
Ifrightful carnage.
Correspondents were permitted to
visit the newly captured terrain.
reaching the scene even before all
|the dead he'd been buried. Searching
parties were still combing the wheat
fields, seeking the wounded.
| Whenever a corpse was found the
bayOnet Of a rife was stuck into the
ground, with the butt showing above
the grain, giving a signal tO tho
|gravediggers where work was to he
done. Many OF the cOrpses were
|hideously rontorted, lying in all kinds
& grotesque positions amidst the
shell-torn ground.
Already the hot summer air had
begun to swarm with myriads of
green flies. German equipment litter
ed the fields and disabled tanks were
|strewn about like lighthouses. They
had been knocked out by Krupp gum
fire.
SpraWled amidst the battered gun
emplacements were the carcasses of
horses, their legs sticking stif1y into
the air. Wrecked wagons and carts
covered the plain.
There was mute evidence of the
death struggles where German ma
chine gunnerS had tried To stand out
against the advancing hosts. We
saw the bodies of attacking troops,
lying with their faces toward the
German lines, just as they had pitch
ed headlong while charging the ma
chine gun emplacements.
A sunken road was flied with Ger
man corpses. These fellows had been
caught under an infilading fire when
an American Lewis gunner worked
his piece into position to NOW them
down. J
Amid these ghastIy scenes the
troops worked, unmindful Of the grue-
some pictures about them, bringing
up ammunition and supplies and or
ganizing reserve defenses, while
batteries were dashing up to support
Inc ln1antry.
The correspondents during the
afternoon reached spot OH the Paris
scissors highway exactly where a
battery Of Krupp field guns had been
previously emplaced. Just w We ar
rived Allied artillery was making pre-
paration for new attack We could
see the fine work OF destruction that
was being carried On, but the yellow
black smoke fumes and the clouds |
Of dust soon blotted out the scene.
Thin black clouds OF smoke rolled
slowly upward denOting bursting
shrapnel. Then creeping barrage |
rolled forward over the summit on |
the heights east ~ Scissors and the |
highway as the gtOrming columns
leaped forward TO the assault. Damly
and family we saw the shadoEy
forms OF the doughbOys advancing |
slowly-so slowly that it seemed like
assumed composure, As they went in-
To the inferno.
Then colored rockets shot up from |
the German trenches, a. our prelimi-l
nary gunfre had cut the Germans I
telephone wires. These were the sig
mails to drop barrage h
Suddenly more rockets were fired, /
this time by the Americans, indicating |
that the Allies had reached their \
objectives.
The artillerymen heightened their
fuses, meanwhile keeping uN A \
fra against tha enemy, dia+ Il
peTsfng Els reinforcements.By Hem I
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