Bisbee daily review., 1919-01-29


We had specialized often on the
whereabouts of our forces and Won
de-ed when they would be brought
into action. No. he replied, Just be.
hinl me, over that hill. there is a di-
vision of marines, and over there,
there is another. We are here to hold
the boche and we're going to do il.
That was the entry Of sne Americans
into the great war as a real factor.
Every one knows what happened i'm
mediately afterward
Brings Home Trophies.
"On August 4, l was in Perrone just
! after the Germans had been driven
out, In September when. our forces
were pushing hack the boche 7 was as
far to the front as Peronne. In Metz,
after the. signing of the armistice,
acquired a saw-edged Prussian bayo-
net which l brought home with me,
I together with a rifle brought from
the forest of the Argonne, officers
and privates' helmets, trench daggers
/ and other objects of interest These
| hope to arrange to have displayed
soon in the Phelps Dodge store win
dow so that the people here may study
each separate piece.
Following the American advance
and again in a trip made in December
to Belgium, I had an opportunity to
study closely the terrific damage
wrought by the boche to the captive
territory. Our own artillery, perforce,
in order to overmatch the Germans.
had to batter down forests, towns and
to practically destrcy cultivated fields.
I ferl,4 L..
walls of towns would be almost level
ed, only a few empty shells standing
to mark the former living place of
thousands of prosperous people. l saw
Albert, where the artillery fire had
been so heavy that even the dead had
been blasted from their graves in the
/ cemetery. Meziers, strong point
which offered stubborn resistance TO
1 the Yanks in their advance, also was
/ leveled. This was an important rail
way center and its fall marked the be-
( ginning of the end for the boche
| Strange to say, when l reached
Metz, l found food plentiful, in spite
of stories reaching US that the Ger
mans We're starving.
France Begins Farming
In December, when l made a trip
through Flanders, to Ypres, Lille and
/ into Belgium, | had a chance to OBJ
| serve the terrible destruction, as well
as to see what the French govern
ment was doing to re-estabtish its peo-
/ pie on the land. OF course in the en-
/ battle area where there was scarce
/ ly space to stand a house so wen had
/ the earth been plowed up by shells
and the subsOil thrown up in great
/ hummocks, rapidly becoming over
/ grown by weeds. No agriculture was
/ possible. But Immediately in the rear
/ was an area that could be cultivated
On this the government was placing
farmers TO till the soil on the COM
munal plan with community tractors
to do the blowing for given number
( OF acres, and cooperative labor TO
plant the crops and later harvest
/ them. Crops already We're in the soil
and to some extent France viii return
/ TO supporting herself by agriculture
/ this year
i Il went as far in Belgium toward
the border of Germany as Louvian and
also visited Zeeburgge where the inn
mensely strong boche submarine base
had been. l also visited Bruges. an
3
! In Ypres, once a city OF $4,000
souls, nothing except few tottering
walls were left standing. II was here
/ that the British hung on grinly in the
face of the boche and regardless of
cost refused to let him pass At Yer
/ dun the French did the same. Bota
/ places were one vast cemetery. / was
/ informed by French officer whom /
/ met on the train that the published
/ reports that the Germans had lost
more heavily than the French at Yer
dun were untrue and had been given
/ out for effect on the morale of the
/ French people. Really. he told me.
each side had lost about a half million
men killed here. France simply said
they shall not pass and did not al
low them to do so, regardless of cost
in lives
French Losses Unknown
Il have no idea what the French
casualty list was during the war. Ii
! is only occasionally that some French
man, and at that when away from
France, Will give out startling state
ments such as that made recently that
100000 Frenchmen had died To save
their country You know no casualty
list was published during the war,
The French nature would not have
stood up under the strain The family
whose relatives had been killed or
wounded at the front was notified. but
there were no published lists I heard
as gossip in France that before they