The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-01-06
DO BIG WORK IN
OSTEAa DISTRICT
Engineers Speedily Reconstruct
Roads and Bridges
Wrecked by Shell.
SOLDIERS WORK IN I'VE pam
Correspondents Describes IN TO os-
tend-Finds Roads Once : lly
Torn by. Shells Almost as
Good as New.

American Press Headquarters, Brit
lsh Front.-We had an impressive IL
lustration to-day of the accomplish
ments of the engineers in this war
when we drove into Ostend.
The chief of the American mission
at belgian headquarters had warned
us dramatically against an attempt TO
make the trip. At least three days
would be required, he said. The roads
were torn up by shells and mines and
congested with troops. Yesterday
| light car had taken twelve hours TO
make twenty miles. But we started
out and had as smooth a road as any
boulevard in the middle West for the
entire distance. There were several
places where we had TO make detours
through villages. and as the dozens of
bridges across the canal near 0stend
were all blown I'D we had TO drive on
about five miles to n temporary bridge.
We averaged about thirty miles an
hour.
Soldiers Work in Rain.
Most of the road was kept up by
British labor battallons, excepting the
section near Christel, through the aw-
full Flanders swamps, where Belgian
| soldiers worked necessarily in driv-
ing rain. We heard they had worked
all night without rest, and so auto
matte had their operations with picl,
and shovel become that they did not
stop to look up when our speeding car
threw Shiny mire all over them. For
a camp they used the long lines Of
German pill-box forts At one place
we saw about twenty of these squat
chambers, with walls three feet thick
and made of concrete. re-cnforced
with steel pipes. Direct shell hits ap-
parently bounced harmlesSly off these
forts. The twenty pill boxes in sight
were in straight row. and behind
Them We're half-dozen larger ones TO
protect the rear
When We had passed tho desolate
waste of water, mud and swamp reeds
and got into other lowImds that had
been drained and tiled we saw more
pill boxes in reserve line. 4 Bel
gian peasant was using one rs Il
chicken house, and the low apertures
for machine guns lent themselves
readily as entrances aud exits for The
fowls. Descendants of these chickens
should be in the old family home Cor
a thousand years hence, or, say. a nil
lion years. Pin boxes are something
that will stand almost everlasting age.
The scores OF drainage sluices across
the roads had all been covered with
temporary bridges by the Belgian en-
gineers following up the German de-
stroyers. These bridges and cuyerts
are not as neat and workmanike as
the ones the British and Americans
build, but they hold the traffic and
that is the important thing just now.
Through the suburbs Of Ostend we
passed cheering BelgianS dressed for
church. The people were SO prayer
fully grateful to the British that hey
did NOT seem to mind the mud we spui-
tered all over them. Many Of them
ran of the road behind trees, and
from their mud screen shouted greet
ings to the English. As the extraor-
binary Flanders mul would even
squirt up TO first floors of houses many
of the people, learnns from expert
ence, had taken to secor stories, from
which they cIapped their hands and
waved flags. The only damage saw
F. In Ostend was the wreckage of the
marine and railway stations and the
shattered glass in buildings on the sen
front, due to the air conclusions from
British monitors pounding the retreat
Ing enemy.
Ruined by sr.l and Bomb.
The piers le; ling out into the sea
from the harbor basin showed effects
of British shells and bombs, and near
the end of the pier was the gallant old
Vindictive, after its magnificent part
in the Zeebrugge bottling.up exploit
where she served as boarding shin
and carried the great superStructure tC
permit British marines TO climb on the
Ieebrugge mole. had been filed Will
concrete and sent in to block 0stend
rs U-boat and destroyer base. Tn,
Vindlctlve made II impossible for sig
able ships to get into Ostend, and IN,
Germans, just before the retreat. tried
l. to complete the work by sinking Il
mail ship alongside the Vindictivc
However, there is still room at high
: tide for small relief ships and barges
In fact, we saw a converted trawlcl
: Of the American Red Cross already IN
the narbor as well rs many similar
I British ships.