The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-02-06
Thrifty French Already Cleaning
Up Battle Ground to
.s
Plant Grain.
TASK MOST DIFFICULT One
Removing Of Barbed Wire Entan0le-
ments Is No Easy Matter-Nar-
row Gauge Railways Being
Torn Up and Trenches
Filled In.

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the 81 months war has already begun
everywhere along the old stationary
front which marked the line of the OPP
posing armies since the inception of a
war of position. a,
Barbed wire entanglements are be-
ing torn up, trenches are being filled
In, camouf1age is being taken down.
narrow-gauge railways removed. and
shell dumps and other depots for ma
terlal being transported away.
This is the first time that any field
Notifications have been permitted to
be touched by the civilian population.
Even after the Germans had been
driven from the Chateau Thierry re-
gion south of the Marine to north Of
the Vesle, the military authorities re-
fused to permit barbed wire to be
taken up or earthworks filled in.
In most cases this work is being
done by civilians, but everywhere with
the release of the older classes Of
French soldiers and the numerous re-
formes-wounded discharged from the
army-there are enough men familiar
| with field works to supervise the re-
moval of them.
Difficult Work.
1t is no easy matter for the novice
to pull up barbed wire, and in places,
particularly In the Juvigny region
north of the Aisne, where the Thirty
second division fought with General
| Mangin's superb Tenth army and won
for themselves the sobriquet of ''The
Tigers" the entanglements v hun
dreds of acres; the belts being hun
dreds of yards in depth, This wire
dates back from September, 1914, and
is rusty and dangerous to handle,
owing to the presence Of tetanus mi
crobes. The newer "giant German
wire," the strands Of which are q
quarter of an inch thick and which
bristle with barbs, is equally hard to
remove.
The old wide trenches which were
in vogue earlier in the al before the
development of the minenwerfer as an
accurate piece of ordnance, are hard
to fill in, as their parapets have beer
washed away by rains and blasted te
bits OF shellire. They are like great
bitches, furrowing the earth in every
trenches, shored with timber and pro
vided with blackboard floors are easier
to fill In. The thrifty French first pull
but the snoring and let the rain &C
on the trenches for q couple Of week,
in which time they invariably fall In
then they shovel over the top. smooth
Ing 1t of.
No, attempts are made to I'LL IN til,
dugouts, the entrances merely beinl
boarded up and covered over. i
many Of these German dugouts ther
are internal machines and mar trap
likely to explode when the first pei
son enters. Loose boards on the stair
or bits of string stretched across th
entrance set Oh. explosives. IN man;
other dugouts there are corpses Q
friends of. foes. killed underground b
bombs hurled doYn the exits
All. roads Id the zone where the III
posing armies have swayed back an
! forth are lined with fox holes, 90 ia
American doughhoys call the tn
, shelter caves they I taught to III
with bayonets ana mess kits m
4 which provide such wonderful ehelte
SIagainst shrapnel. MyeryWhhere IA II
belt of terrain narking fhe eaxtren
I limits q the pas1ageO1 ne fglltinI
4 txo6pss there axsae1dbe4g roMe ce9t1lel