The Washington herald., 1919-04-06
coNr1Nupp PROM PAGE ONE.

was not going to tell hfm-theN
exact effect Of his poison gas.
The sum total of his slaughter
in particular places. The sue
cess of his fame machines and
other devilish devices. So, in
spite OF the tragic spirit which
often brooded In my dispatches
from the front. and my descrip-
tions of battlefield scenes which
were grim enough. God knows,
in their realism. did not give
the full picture Of our mems -
agony.
The need of secrecy Is now
passed. II Is due to our men
that the world should now know
how much they suffered with
such stoical courage. The mis-
cry and the beastliness and the
terror Of Ii all should be stripped
of all their romantic "camou-
fiage'' so that the truth should
be etched deeply in the pages
Of history.
The worst suf-
After the fering of the Brit
Retreat ish army began
From Mons after the retreat
from Mons OF the
''old contemptibles"-the gal
liant little regular army-in
1914, and when there began
that long period OF stationary
warfare in entrenched positions
which neither side could oreak
through. The Germans by good
generalship and superior num-
bers had established themselves
on high ground almost every
where on the whole line OF their
front. Through Belgium and
France the British troops were
in a hideous position in the
Ypres salient lying in saucer
like hollow trimmed round by the
Germans on the ridges of Pill
KEN, westhoek, Wytschaete and
Messines. When later in the
spring Of 1915 they took over a
longer line to liberate the Tenth
French army for the defense of
Verdun they were again in low
lying ground round Lens and
Arras, with the enemy above
them on the vimy Ridge, Mon
chy Hill, and the banks of the
Scarpe. This was the cause Of
much misery and enormous
slaughter. The Germans had
complete observation Of the
British trenches and of the
roads and tracks which led to
them. They started straight
down into villages held by Brit
ish garrisons and into other viii
leges six miles or more behind
Nazaire, Vlamertinghe and
many more-throug which our
troops had to march on their
way to the front or where they
were billeted. With immense
superiority in gun power, until
the end of 1915. they turned
their artillery on to these places
with ruthIessness and method,
by day and night. They pound
ed them into fragments and then
into dust so that OF Souchez
town and sugar factory there
is not even a rubbish heap, and
Ablain. ST. Nazaire, could not
be found except for the skeleton
ribs of its church. Beneath
those ruins and in that dust lie
the bones of British soldiers.
Many of them were buried alive.
That happened scores Of times
in Ypres where platoons Of men
billeted in vaults below the
cloth hall, the Cathedral and
houses were entombed by tons
of masonry hurled down by high
explosives. remember in the
spring Of 1915 that forty men
were buried like this below a
house in Ypres which was piled
above them by German shell
Ere. Their groans were heard
by their comrades who made
frantic efforts to rescue them,
but during this work of rescue
the enemy's fire was intensified
and around the living tomb OF
the forty men lay MANY dead
and dying. That happened not
once but hundreds of times, not
only in Ypres, but in Albert and
Arras and many other towns
under German gunfire into
which we went with the nag
giug little devil of thought that
at any moment death or horri-
BILE agonies preceding death
might happen to us. Yet our
men went into these
Our Men places and lived in
whIstIed them, laughing and
Mt Death. whistling, taking the
risk, day after day,
and hiding that cold touch OF
fear which was somewhere in
the heart OF the bravest of .
them. Our troops and our trans
ports went up the tracks which
the Germans had registered
with their guns. 1t was just
luck, always, whether they
passed between the bursts OF
shellfre at Suicide Corner"
and "Shrapnel Corner" and
''Hellfire Cross Roads" and out
of Ypres along the Menin road.
often luck was against them
and 1 saw the unlucky ones
blown to bits, headless or with
smashed faces, or mere frag-
ments of human flesh lying
among dead and mangled horses.
where a gun team had tried to
dash past Arras station. or a
transport column had come
through Albert with its Falling
Virgin. Yet no man ever shirked
going up those roads OF ILL
fame and il one transport COL
umn were destroyed another
followed past the dead bodies of
their comrades, past the dead
horses and the broken wagons
so that the men in the line
should not lack for food or am
munition. And this happened
not for one week or one month
or one year, but for four years
until the cemeteries behind our
lines grew like forests OF white
crosses.
Behind tbs front lines where
the communication trenches be-
gan no body of men moved in
daylight without being "strafed"
by the enemy's guns directed
by watchful observers on the
ridges with telephones connect
ed with the batteries, so that