The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-03-31
HUNS PECULIAR IDEA
OF WORK OF J. N. CA.


New York. March ea.--Music from
! "a hand organ in one street, and music
from machine guns in the next
thoroug.lfare-that lis the recollection
q Be' lin which IS impressed upon
ne mind OF Carl D. Lyle, of Meirose,
Mas, the only K. NJ. G. A. worker
'rz+ -; - *. j. z. 5 Il. II
during the war. MIR. Lytle was cap
tured nj Maisy. resr Scissors on May
~, 1918 He left Berlin on January
10 of this year. having served during
the time intervening since the armis-
lice was signed ~ the repatriation of
American prisoners OF war.
Berlin when / left the city" said
Mr.. 1-ytle mt the New York head
quarters of the Y. ~. G. A. war work
council on his return TO America, re
minded Of nothing 30 much as one Of
our home cities on the day when the
circus comes to town. I was able
% move about freely in sections that
were not guarded by government
troops or revolutionari0e. The streets
were flled with people as on a holi-
day; few shops were open and pracH-
cally no on" was working. After dark,
however. conditions changed and any
tfinE miGht happen. One night I
watched from my window n battle II,
thu street all the windows on the
other side Of the street were shot out.
As a general thing the Berlin news
paper Offices, railroad stations and
offices of telephone and telegraph
companies were the centers of excite
mont"
Mr.. T.ytfe describes the hghttng on
The dav when he was captured as "a.
beautiful battle TO watch" He had
gone overseas in January. 1918. leav-
i ing his place as principal of the
Franklin Grammar school in Melrose
70 do 'Y'' work in the French Fovers
1u Soldat.
In February he was at Leury. north
/ of scissors. where he was buried in
The debris Of building which had
, been struck by q German she'll In
/ April the German attack became so
/ fierce That the poilus were forbidden
/ to assemble In the foyer and Mr..
I r'le was sent to MaIsy. Here he
remained when raw British troops
were sent in to relieve the French.
He stood by when the German made
their Onslaught with n terrific barrage.
hen dropped shells and kept up T.
mereiless machine gun FIRE.
we could endure the horror OF
the machine gun and she'll fire." Mr.
Lytle continued. but never in a dozen
wars could we accustom ourselves to
the deadly fire Of airplanes. In the
attack when We were captured the
Boche planes flew very low. in n
figure S., and they did q clean Job
When / first went north OF scissors
there were pretty villages and
optimistic villagers; when I went back
eight months after fell into the
hands OF the Germans fne whole coun-
try was denuded. ! was overwhelmed
by the tragedy OF 1t all. and did nor
; stay long.
ON the morning of May 81 the
: Germans executed a successful en-
rirclng movement around the end OF
! the Chemin des DANES. Soon after
= ward ] started for Germany. hating
i at a crossroads beyond the Aisne and
y then being assigned with nine other
prisoners TO work as n stretcher-bear-
err. The Huns apparently had made
no preparations In this sector for
handling the wounded. We were in
structed TO carry IA German captain
back to dressing station and from
noon that day until O'Clock the next
morning we went steadily back mile
after mile. We had no guards and
. for the first two miles we didn't see
= a solitary Hun. After that we met
; plenty OF them, until we arrived a,
4 the cellar of n chateau where the
Iwounded were received.
The next morning we were brought
: back 10 receiving cage near where
u we had been captured and for tive
: days we stayed in ii except when We
were working on the railroad. Their
= we were put behind barbed wire en-
!. ,tanglements and confined for five
. weeks
e During all that time we were pray
. ing to get to Germany. not such ar
d unusual prayer when you consider
= that then we would be registered and
= could send cards TO friends who knew
:, II was early in July that ! was asked
u by Hun CAPTAIN to write repor'
" stating what the Y. NJ C. A. was. and
three DAYS later--whether the report
had anything to do with II neve,
i, knew was placed with three Ameri-
y can heutenants and given room Of
my own.
Late In July we Sere sent to
HirsCn on The Eelgian border and fol
ten days thif.v-two Of us were con.
fired in d,nfec befor> starting
j on IN. final jout ney into Germany. i
was here that hear cannonadine
for the first time since had been re
moved from the front. None of II,
knew what it meant but we were te
n learn rev days later when we were
:. turned ou' of train near Sedan and
all traffic into Germany wac stopped
- for few hours while Austrian troop:
: were rushed by us.
This made us hopeful and oul
. spirits rose when we reached Rastatt
!. prison camp and heard that the allie.
q had successfully turned the attach
. against the enemy. The claim wa,
a made that this news was obtained by
. two Frenchmen with a wireless rig
h ging tSat caught snatches of mes
Q sages sent by wireless from tho front
/ Whether this was the way the news
r came. IT latter proved to be authentic
o "And now must give the devi
: hts due. was sent to Stralsund, al
8 island near the Baltic const, wher,
the Germans had a splendidly organic
ed prison camp. Two officers and
: were the only Americans in a grour
Of 900 prisoners. We had educa.
tionai athletic and entertainment
l privileges and got some real foot
D ithrcugh the British Red Cross. With.
our this food we should not have
: been able to avail ourselves Of the
opportunities for athletics. The Ger