New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1919-01-18
STRANGE QUIET NOW
OVER BATTLEFIELDS
Great FloCkS Of Grows Supplant
AirpIaneS in Air

Behind the Lines in France, Dec. -
Correspondence Of The Associated
Press. )-This land of recent battles
is a queer land now Over the she'll
torn villages and blasted woods, the
pitted fields and the ruin of all that
once was is a strange quiet. The win
ter sky is lacking in airplanes, and
great t1ocks of crows have taken their
plaC
A few villagers have crept back to
see what remains of their homes and
holdings. but they are few and prob
ably the winter will have passed be-
fore reclamation and reconstruction
are undertaken on a large scale.
Along the roads repaired and re-
bridged for the Allies advance into
German territory, long canton trains
move slowly and always southwark.
They travel leisurely now, for the need
Of hurry is gone. They bring back
the salvage of battlefelds. all the
things that go to make war, aban-
doned or captured.
Truckload after truckload Of rifles
and shells, Of water bottles and haver-
sacks. cartridges machine guns bay
onets and trench knives and pistols,
mess kits. overcoats, caps, an endless
catalog of paraphernalia, are brought
in. The battle zone is still full of it,
all in heaps and racks, waiting sal
wage.
Now and then come trains Of air
plane camiOns burdened with disman-
tied flying machines of every type and
+ every nation. engine and fuSilage and
running gear on the truck and the
great wings on its specially designed
trailer. Some of them are unframed.
, but many show bullet holes through
the frail fabric or the ruins of
crash. \ fair proportion of them bear
the Maltese cross that marks them
BOche.
There are trains of captured enemy
artillery, particularly of motor bat
teries, driven and manned by French
men, and these are happy outfits s.
Often the guns are decorated with
evergrecns and always the French
soldiers laugh and wave a greeting.
AS they creep through the villages the
pOpulace hoCkS out to view the car
non that for four years sent death and
devastation to their land. and the
children Chamber on the carriages and
out on the grim barrels.
But it is the troops on the way back
that are most interesting, returning
to rest areas or to their ports of en-
barkatiOn for home. French or Amer
lean. their behavior is the same. Al
ways they are laughing or singing,
always they greet everyone Cheerily
or hoisterously, and always the French
officers salute with a smile when they
meet an American car, while the men
wave and shout, LA gUerrc est fine,
/ or a similar greeting. Even the chill
! dren cry "Finis fms" to the passing
! car.
! Strangest of all are the lights at
nigh in the hamlets and villages or
shining friendlily from the isolated
armhouse in regions further DaCk.
For SO long France seemed a deserted
land to the traveller by night. Hour
after hour The Associated Press cor
4 respondent has Travelled n night
without q. gIimmer to be seen in the
countryside, and now from every hill
and vale the CHEEKY windows Shlne
and the villages are ablaze. The
papers devote columns to the illumi-
nation Of Paris, but it is here in the
! remote part Of France where war has
: been that lights at night seem most
wonderful. even if they are but candle
or little lamp. Where once cam1ons
or staff cars doomed ljghtless in the
roads to the imminent threat Of col
lision, and often its accomplishing emit,
the brilliant headlights stab the night
There Is no village now but where
the travelling stranger can obtain food