New Britain herald., 1919-02-17

traffic Of all KINDS, army trucks, mo-
torcycles with side cars, trucks with
two and three horses tandem, dog
teams, go-carts with men and women
pushers, ambulances, artillery wagons,
autos Of all makes and sizes, and I
saw two OK teams
up to this time the weather had
been very cold, with a misty rain
blowing in our faces, but at Cassel
the sun tried, to favor us with it's
presence, and as we slid down the
hill to the eastward, it came out in
full force and made the rest of the
trip a pleasant one. From Cassel to
Caestre is about six miles, and you
then begin to get into territory which
was under shell fire. Trenches,
barbed- wire entanglements, shell
heaps, demolished houses, trees we'll
riddled, and shell holes in abundance
are the signs. But from Caestre on
to the east tells the story. He'll was
let loose if it ever was on this old
globe. The run of four or five miles
to Bailleul was a corker In the first
place the road was shelled to bits,
half the distance is over wooden
bridges across shell holes and mine
holes, and we made very slow time.
The town of Bailleul, about the size
of Sprin gfield, Verm ont is a ruin of
the first magnitude. Not one building
left with walls, to say nothing about
roofs, the church is a pile of brick,
and the streets are not diStinguiShable
from any other part of the ruins.
Signs were up telling where the
streets had formerly been located.
''Shells peel1ed at you from all the
rubbish piles, graves were located in
all directions, junk of every descrip-
ton was scattered everywhere, and
this town located on a hill between
two very hard fought battlefields, got
a Furnishing which will go down in the
history of the war as unique, in fact
Pompeii was a paradise after the
eruption of Aetna when compared to
Bailleul.
Several gangs Of Tommies and
Chinese coolies were clearing up the
main highways, assisted by German
prisoners, and they had q job on their
hands, | can assure you. with the
roads all shot full of holes and buried
many feet deep with brick and plas-
ter rubbish.
1--WE went down the Armentiers
road a short distance to crossing
and then turned north to Neuve Egg
lise. This town is now only a cross
roads, with a sign telling where the
town was formerly located. Not one
building left. not even whole brick,
for what few bricks had been left by
the shells We're used in road making
during the war. Think of a town the
size of Stafford Springs being cleaned
entirely off the face of the earth. Not
one brick left not even a single Gel
lar-holc. That is Neuve Eglise.
I've next went up the Messines
Ridge to Wulgerghem, a big town
smashed up worse than Bailleul but
still standing. The country around
here is understandable. Shell-hole
overlaps shall-hoIe. 1t took US about
half an hour to walk a half mile
along the ridge, and mud and clay
never saw anything like it, you put
your foot down and when you take
step up comes about ten pounds
of clay stuck to your Shoe two feet
in diameter of clay cake. Trenches
full of mud and water, shell-holes
five feet deep and ten feet in dame
ter, shelI-holes ten feet deep and
thirty feet in diameter, barbed-wire
in frightful arrangement, abandoned
gun carriages, great heaps of earth
where mines had been exploded old
tree trunks, abandoned and smashed
industrial railways, telephone wires,
hustled pill boxes for machine guns
big due-outs with steps of concrete
descending deep into the bowels Of
the earth, big gun emplacem ents of
solid concrete smashed to bits, steel