Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1919-06-27
SEEING BATTLEFIELDS AND RI NED
AREAS OF FRANCE FOR FIRST TIME
Writer Describes Sensations Experienced at First Sight of Devas-
ation Left in Wake Of WarAdmation for the Wonderful
Spirit Of TIE French PeopIe-Abandoned War
Material on All Sides

and the devastation needed no expla-
nation. We passed abandoned air
planes. army trucks, camions and guns
of every description.
We passed numerous German pris.
on camps. Eight hundred thousand
prisoners are being utilized wherever
possible In repairing the buildings.
roadways and the part of the dam
age they have done.
The Debris of War
Nearing Verdun we came upon
many storehouses filed with ammu-
nition-shells, hand grenades, and
other war material-that has never.
been removed from the containers.
What to do with the tons and tons
of this ammunition is one of the af-
ter-war problems.
Miles and miles of nGlTow-gauge
railroad lines were constructed over
which the ammunition and cuppIies
were sent TO the front These rail-
read tracks, for many miles, are still
undlsturbed.
Not a single entire house remains
standing in Verdun. at one time the
home of $4,000 civilians. Where once
there were homes is now only a noun
tain of stones, brick. rubbish and gap
ing walls. The fort is intact-at no
point did the German guns penetrate
the walls We walked through four
miles of tunnels under the forts, in
which the inhabitants lived with the
soldiers during part of the time
the city was under fire.
Fort Donamont,. ten miles beyond
Verdnn. is merely a heap of stones
and debris, entirely surrounded for
miles by torn and tortured earth re-
sembling a pIowed field. excepting for
the the craters made by exploding
shells. Here were the bones and
skulls of dead Germans. empty shells.
helmets and gas masks. Some of the
dugouts remain in the hiIlsides. This
is most desolate spot on the earth
excepting possibly mo Mans Land"
between Challons and Reims.
Reluctantly we retraced our steps
and returned to Ste Menehould. Here
we found an inn where we put up for
the night.
Bright and early with the sun at
our backs we started on 70-miIe ride
to Reims. BY noon it was showing
hard The road between Challons
and Reims had not been put in
as good repair as in some other sec
lions Shell holes forced us to pro-
coed cautiously.
DesoIation Everywhere.
We followed the Hindenburg line.
which we crossed and recrossed sew
eral times during the morning. Miles
of barhed-wire entanglemcnts. dug
outs, trenches and abandoned huvS
stretched along the roadway. 40
Mans land stretched before us for
miles. We reached Fort de Ia Porn
pelle shortly after noon The fort mad
been leveled TO the ground. bat we
we're able to proceed 20 feet below the
ground and along the tunnels Lead
ing to No Mans land The bones of
dead boches and horses are still un-
buried. Here we found abandoned
tanks and guns.
Reims, a city of l25.000 before the
war, with many fine public buildings.
Including the cathedral, now has less
than a dozen buildings standing and a
population of 1000 people. Refugees
are just beginning TO come back, and
few shops are being opened. The
beautiful cathedral with It's wonderful
stained glass windows where kings
have been blessed, is a mass of ruins
with nothing but the walls standing.
German prisoners were removing the
stones, bricks and mortar from where
the roof had fallen to the auditorium
below. 1t was estimated that it
would take hundred prisoners weeks
TO remove the debris
German prisoners are being used to
repair the pcrts of the buildings
that can be used as temporary quar-
ters and In rebuilding the sewers and
water systems. 1t was here we saw
Germans hitched to wagons taking the