The Elbert County tribune., 1919-08-01
verdun. France. May 11.,1s.

4
As to day is mothers day and every
ther put me in the notion of doing
so. l left Camp D'Anvours the 5th
and spent twenty-four hours in Paris
that is all one is allowed, on class
B leave, which is to visit all points
In France, except Paris and as they
allow one twenty four hours TO make
train connections l expect to go
through there twice more, before
my leave is up. On a fourteen day
leave one has to pay their own ex-
regular fare and stay at the Y. NJ G.
| A. Huts it is rather inexpensive at
that. 1t does not cost US any thug
for lodging and meals average about
two francs, (35 cents) a piece, you
can see 1t is not costing me a great
ieal. | am getting my dollar and ten
a day and sixty cents day extra for
comutation of rations and / am get
ting a good trip that many a person
Will pay several hundred dollars for
withinthe next year and they will
not see the battle fields under the
same conditions that they are in at
the present time, as they are polio
ing and cleaning them up as fast as
possible. Yo" can not begin to real
ize the conditions OF the country a.
have any idea of the damage that can
be done by shell fire. A person can
still find bodies that are still un-
buried of course one has
to go out some distance from where
the most of the people go. There are
four of us together and we get up
early and take our lunch with US and
perhaps in a day we Will cover twenty
five miles and get into places where
the parties that are taken out by tn
guides and Y. M c. A never touch
as they only take one to places where
perhaps a battle of particular inter
est has taken place or some Fort
that has been destroyed and happens
to be near the village We were
out in Chateau Thierry on trip of
and as the Y. M. c. A. bus was out
of order payed frog ten francs, each
for the trip. l do not particularly
care for the money but they are al
ways in hurry to get back and get
another load. We hiked all over
the district around Reims and GER
tainly saw some wonderful sights. | |
was in the trenches that were three
stories below the ground and had
telephones and electric lights, of
but one can see where the wires We're
connected up as the wires are still
there. Alsa was to the top of one
of their observation posts, which
commanded a viewof thes urrounding
country. We are going to start at
sevensthirty tomorrow am. and make
Fort Dumont, " Dead Mans Hill and
Hill 304. expect to be gon. ali day
and a'hai,i. / avH our lunch and ran
teen water. We also have an ap-
Pile of Ii enerts who wish TO ac-
company US, IS we have hand draw
en- map { some territory that iias
not been cleaned up yet. A couple
wanted to go but we rather discour-
aged the idea as / am afraid they can
not stand the hike. One has to be
careful as there ares many unex-
ploded shells and grenades that are
laying around.
There is tunnel and dugouts on
Dead Mans Hill, that extends for
miles. Here is where the Grown
Prince had his army and it is fitted
up with its own electric light plant.
the dynamoes ares till there. also a
narrow gauge railroad that runs
through 1t and bath room that is
made of white tile This no doubt
sounds rather overdrawn to you peo-
pie, but it is fact.
There were over one hundred
thousand men killed in one battle
ON the attack of Fort Dumont. and
this hill is only a short distance from
the Fort There was room enough
in the Grown Princes Tunnell' to
shelter one division of men. We
had a wonderful trip through the
Citadel of Verdun" this afternoon
One of the "Y" men acted as guide.
This is an underground city in the
walls and underneath the city of
Verdun and is sure a wonderful
piece of engineering. They have
great walled passage ways with a
railroad running down some of the
passage ways, of course we did not