Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1919-04-10
A TRIP AROUND Il
DEAD MANS CURVE

Monthly Chronlc!e ol Ihe Gpiscopa
| High School written by Charles c
Carlin. Jr., son of Hon. and Mrs
Charles C. Carlin, of this city. This j
one Of . series of articles Mr.. Carlir
proposes to contribute to this schoo
ma gazine.
There are many interesting things
which happen to one who has the
opportunity to be in and around the
activities of a European war, espe-
cially when it happens to be world
war. There are a good many things
that happened that were Of extreme
interest to me. so am going to take
the liberty of relating one of my
aarlies. experiences, hoping that il
will interest these Of you who take
occasion to read it.
1t was in tie early part of No
senlber. 1918. that had an oppor-
unity to visit the front and, being
ucky enough to secure an army car
md guide for that purpose. lost
10 time in making preparations for
ny journey. 1t was on beautiful
morning that we drove through the
streets of the French capital, on out
nto the rural sections of "La Belle
france" which is surely properly
named. Never in my life had ! seer
;nch color or such richness of sol,
IS that which stretched out before
IS far as eye could reach. It was
ndeed difficult to believe that way
,ould be raging 50 close at hand but
! was destined to appreciate the
'eality Of that statement long before
NY ride was ended
We had many kilometer to
over before We reached the Billeu
woods where a part of the Amer
an and French troops were station
d. The car which | mentioned before,
,eing a Cadillac and knowing the
ype Of driver employed by the Ameri-
an Army. ! had little fear of not
caching my destination before night
ALL Provided, Of course that We were
lcky enough to dodge a few shells
which might happen to cross our path.
As our rids progressed. I was
,articularly impressed by the scar
ity of men, horses, and cattle. The
york was being done by the women
md young children, occasionally !
aw IN old man or cripple doing
lis bit. I could not but wonder az
heir cheerfulness. Then, / knew
,ut little of the wonderful spirit CT
patriotism and self-sacrifice of the
french people, which had enabled
hem to stand for four years against
he German Army.
/ soon Began to see evidences Of
war. Cripples, refugees, sick and
younded, shelled towns, ruined
srops, everything took on an aspect
# horror. and suffering. That was
nv first sight of the fruits of war
nd at last | began to realize things
nat l had not been able to grasp by
'eading, hcarsay, or even motion
pictures. Miles and miles of ruined
owns and depressing sights were
overed before we reached the 90
allied war zone.
The roads from here on were a.!
,creenet in by camouflaged trees
md strawberries and were to large
.xtent rather cut up by shell holes.
jou could almost imagine that you
we're in theater, had it not been
or the occasional stray. shells whish
often hit uncomfortably close. On
md on we pushed, passing troops,
munition and supply trains, some
coming, some going, there seemed to
be no end of them. As we drew
nearer our destination we had to
stop quite frequently to clear the road
If both dead men and horses. The
fields everywhere were covered with
praves and men still unburied. l tell
YOU it is quite strange feeling for
one not accustomed to such sceneu to
be suddenly thrown in an atmosphere
IF continual horror.
At last we reached dead Mans
Curve" which, by the way, is very
appropriately named. The Germans
had a gun trained upon that particu-
l2r spot and had made it impossible
for any camoufage to be erected,
and had succeeded in making it diff
icult for supply trains or anything
else to cross the opening Neverthe-
less we had to cross it and l for one
wasn't particularly pleased with the
prospects. The driver brought tht
car to stop some yards from thu
curve and proceeded to light a ciga