Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1919-01-16
DO BIG WORK IN
0STEND DISTRICT
Engineers Speedily Reconstruct
Roads and Bridges
Wrecked by Shell.
SOLDIERS WORK IN THE Rain
Correspondent Describes Trip to Os-
tend--Finds Roads Once Badly
Torn by Shells Almost as
Good as New.

American Press Headquarters, Brit
ish Front.--W had an impressive H.
lustratiou today of the accomplish
ments of the engineers in this war
when we drove into Ostend.
The chief of the American mission
at Belgian headquarters had warned
us dramatically against an attempt to
make the trip. AT least three days
would be required, he said, The roads
were torn up by shells and mines and
congcstpd with troops. Yesterday II
light car had taken twelve hours to
make twenty ln!les. But we started
out and mad as smooth road as any
boulevard in the middle West for the
entire distance. There were several
places where we had to make detOurS
through villages, and as the dozens of
bridges across the cpnal near OStend
were all blown ny we had to drive on
about five miles to Il temporary bridge,
We averaged about thirty miles an
hour.
Soldiers Wo.k In Rain.
Most OF the road was kept up by
British labor battnlons, excepting the
section near Christci, through the aw.
FIJI Flanders sWampS, where Belgian
soldiers worked necessarily in Il driv-
ing rain. We heard they had worked
all night without rest, and so auto
matte had their operations with pick
and shovel become that they did not
stop to look up when our speeding car
threw Shiny mtrc all over them. For
II camp they used the long lines of
German pil-boX forts. At one place
We saw about twenty of these squat
chalmers, with walls three feet thick
and made Of concrete, re-enfOrced
with steel pipes. Direct shell hits ap.
parcntly bounced harmcsSly off these
forts. The twenty pill boxes in sight
were in ii straight row, and behind
them We're a ha!f-do2cn larger ones to
protect the rear,
Nh"n We had passed the deSolatc
waste of water, mud and swamp reeds
and got into other lowlands that had
been drained ana tiled we saw more
pill boxes In Il reserve line. A Bel.
ginn peasant WAS using one as
chicken house, and the low aperturcs
for machine guns lent themselves
readily as entrances and exits for the
fowls. Descendants OF these chickens
should be III the old family home for
II thousand years hence, or, say, Il mil.
Lon years. Pin boxes are something
that will stand almost everlasting age.
The scores of drainage suiceS across
III" roads had all been covered with
temporary brid .geS by the Belgian en-
GinrprS following up the German de-
StroNrrS. These bridges and Culvcrt&
are not as neat ana Workmanike rs
the ones the British and Americans
build. but they hold the traffic, and
that is the important thing just now.
Through the suburbs of Ostend we
passed cheering H"lgiNnS dressed for
church. The people were so prayer
fully grateful to the British that they
did not seem to mind the mud we Spnt-
tered all over them. Many of them
ran of the road behind trees, and
from their mud screen shouted greet
in:S to the English As the eXtraor-
binary Flanders mud would even
squirt up TO first floors Of houses many
of the people, learning from expert
encr, had taken to second stories, from
which they clapped their hands and
waved flags, Tie only damage we saw
in OStcEd was the wreckage of the
marine and railway stations and the
shattered glass in buildings on the sea-
front, due to the air concessions from
British monitors pounding the retreat
Ing enemy.
Ruined by Shell and Bomb.
The piers leading out into the sea
from the hHrbOr basin showed effects
If British Shells and bombs, and near
the end of the pier was the gallant old
Nndirtive, after its magnificent part
in the Zeebrugsc hQttling-up exploit,
where She served us il boarding ship
End carried the great Superstructure to
permit British marines to climb on the
Xrcbrugge mole, had been filled with
concrete and sent in to block OStend
Us U-boat and destroyer base. The
Nindictivc made it impossible for Siz-
able ships to get into Ostend, and the
Germans, Just before the retreat, tried
to complete the work by sinking
mail ship alongside the Nindictive.
However, there is still room ut high
tide for small relief ships and barges.
In fact, we saw Il converted traWler
Of the American Red Cross already in
the harbor as we'll as many similar
British ships.