The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-06
Vesle, following upon the famous drive
from Chateau Thierry.
Continued from Preceding Page.
In the VeIse CrucibIe,

from Chateau-Thierry.
In the VeIse CrucibIe.
Relieved by the Thirty-seventh Di-
vision, an Ohio National Guard outfit,
new, as we had been, to the line. the
Seventy got under way on
August 3 for parts unknown. italy
was prophesied by the grapevine"
wiseacres. because overcoats had been
called in n few days previously.
The infantry entrained at Charmes
and Bainville on the Moselle River
after a three days hike; the artillery
at Bayon. 1t required nearly a day
and night Of "homming and che
vauxing" on the amusing French
trains to cover trip of about $50 miles.
The division detrained at villages in
the neigfborhood of Coulommiers
thirty-five miles east OF Paris Chateau
Thierry was due north, and Italy was
mot even a memory
There was urgent need for haste
now. North through Chateau Thierry
to the recently reclaimed Fere-en-
Tardenois we bumped for eight hours
In hundreds CT French motor trucks,
driven by ginning little Indo- Chinese.
On every side were evidences of the
death struggle by which the Marine
Valley had been wrested from the
Boche. Bridges that once spanned the
Marine were now damaging its course;
craters yawned the width of the road
ways where the retreating enemy had
set of his mines; abandoned ammuni-
ton dumps. with hundreds of thousands
OF shells, lined the roads: signs con-
fronted you with IA mach instead of a
pers.
An Aged Exile.
But already the urge of the hearth
had brought back the eXiled. One wo-
man shall never quite forget She
was old-old beyond the telling In the
doorway of what had been her home
she stood and family waved her blue
polka-dotted handkerchief to us as our
endless lorry train passed in a swirl OF
dust. Only two walls Of the house
were standing. Through the gaping
windows--eyes poked out, they seemed
could be seen tho pitiable remnants
OF her possessions, Jumbled, tortured
heap OF furniture and masonry from
which projected. like some ironic bur
ial marker, stovepipe. AS the little
old woman waved her face went into
network Of wrinkles that was a smile
I'm sure II was a smile, though once
I thought had a glimpse OF the kerr
chief suspiciously near her yes But
then-the air was heavy with dust. At
her shoulder on the wall was yet nailed
n frowning sign in German script-
"kommandantur." But topping the
sign and caught tenaciously In sag
ging shutter. was a little patch Of faded
cloth that waved faintly--as she did
with the breeze. 1t was the only flag
saw at the front--the tricolor.
In the reduction OF the Rheims Sois-
sons salient one Of our divisions that
suffered heavily was the Fourth Reg
ulars. 1t was the Fourth and the
hard pressed Fifty-second French that
we relieved on the night of August II
al the Vesle. a little west OF Fismes,
under the stress of an emergency that
permitted no recommending OF the new
position.
AS a matter of fact. there was no or
ganized position along the Vesle. To
understand the nature Of the fighting
that ensued there. imagine a deep
marsh pitted valley about a mile wide,
running approximately east and west
between steep hills on the north and
south.
There Were No Trenches.
In his retirement from the Marne
the Boche was making a desperate
stand along the northern ridge that
Swallowed the Vesle. affordinG superb
natural defences. There were no
trenches. The shattered Fourth had
been hanging on grimly against coun-
ter attacks upon their funkholes along
the southern bank of the river.
Funkholes are the trenches of open
warfare-the result OF digging In"