Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1919-07-02
SEEING BATTLEFIELDS AND RUINED
AREAS OF FRANCE FOR FIRST time
Writer Describes Sensations Experienced at First Sight of Devas
taOn Left in Wake of War-Admiration for the Wonderful
Spirit of the French People-Abandoned War
Material on All Sides


nation. We passed abandoned air
planes, army trucks. camlons and guns
of every description.
We passed numerous German prls-
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 filled 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 narrow-gauge
railroad lines were constructed over
which the ammunition and supplies
were sent to the front. These rail-
road tracks. for many miles, are still
undisturbed.
Not 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 IL 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 DunamOnt, ten miles beyond
Verdun, Is merely a heap of stones
and debris, entirely surrounded for
miles by torn and tortured earth re-
sembllng plowed 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 I'm the hillsides. This
is n most desoate spot on the earth
excepting possibly "No 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 7O-mile ride
to Rcims. 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.
tons. Shell holes forced us to pro-
ceed cautiously.
DesoIatlon Everywhere.
We followed the Hlndenburg line
which we crossed and recrossed sew
eral times during the morning. Miles
OF barbed-wire entanglements. dug
outs, trenches and abandoned huts
stretched along the roadway. No
Mans land stretched before us for
miles. We reached Fort de In Pom
pelle shortly after noon. The fort had
been leveled to the ground, but we
were 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 I'M
buried. Here we found abandoned
tanks and guns.
Eelms, a city Of 125,0O0 before the
war, with many fine public buildings.
including the cathedral, now has less
than dozen buildings standing and
population of 1000 people. Refugees
are just beginning to come back. and
few shops are being opened. The
beautiful cathedral with its 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 10 the AUDITORIUM
below. II was estimated that It
would take hundred prisoners weeks
20 remove the debris.
German prisoners are being used 10
repair the parts of the buildings
that can be used as temporary quar-
tiers and in rebuilding the sewers ana
water systems. II was here we saw
Germans hitched TO wagons taking the