The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-03-21
psatsd daily witA svse-lnessas1ng ~
lenca
oHAPTGR XII.

TAs Inhabitants of Oernay Who ~
remained. mostly old people wsre a
gathered In . barn because Of the 6eoe
Of spieA Here they Were guarded b
soldiers. A the enemy bombar6me0e
always occurred at . certain hour. our
commander thought that somebody In
the village was In communication with
the enemy BY means Of Q concealed
telephone. It was even discovered
that the hands Of the church clock had
bssn turned and at one time stood at
SIX and shortly after at nve O'Clock
The spy who dgnaled the enemy ~
means Of this clock was not disc0v.
cred. neither anyone using Q concealed
telephone instrument. In order -
catch the right one an the civilians
were interned In the barn. These
civilian prisoners were supplied In tAe
same way the soldiers were. with food
and drink, but were also exposed. Ike
the soldiers, to the daily lombard
ments. which In time destroyed The
whole village. Two women and ons
child had been killed In this manner
and yet the people were not removed
Almost daily houses caught fire In the
village and burned down. The shells
were now falling regularly at eight
O'Clock In the evening. They were Of
heavy caliber. At eight O'Clock prompt.
". when the flrst shell arrived, we left
the town. There followed. In short IL
tervals, fourteen to fifteen shells. the
Iron ration" We believed that the
Rrnnnh oonnow ~nndenw <h>n> ~AAVNn
were brought up somewhere at night
When We returned from our prone
made, ~ we called the nightly excur.
sion, we were sent to our places In the
trenches. There we were used for ~.
cry kind Of duty. One evening wo
were called up to fortify q farm taken
from the French the previous day. We
had to build machine guns and place
them.
Our camp at Dermois was
continually under heavy bombardmenk
Finally rest became impossible. The
heavy-caliber shells struck the roofB
Of the houses and penetrated to the
cellars. The civilians were taken away
after several had been killed By shellA
After about ten weeks In this country
We were sent 70 smother part Of the
front. Our destination was kept from
u.
At the depot at Challerange We en-.
tered q train waiting for Ms. It con.
sisted Of second and third class
coaches. The train rolled slowly
through the beautiful country. and for
the i1rst time since the war began w
saw the light behind the front All the
depots, crossings and bridges were 90.
cupied BY the military. Everywhere
was activity. Long trains loaded with
agricultural machinery Of every vari.
ETY. stood at the larger stations. The
crew Of our train consisted Of ofncinlo
Of the Prussian state railways. They
had traversed this country often and
told us that there was NO agricultural
machine In all occupied territory. The
same thing happened with all machin-
cry Of industry that could be spared.
Everywhere we saw the finest kind
Of machinery en- route to Germany.
In the evening we passed Sedan.
Early the next morning we arrived At
Montmedy. Here we had to leave the
train and were permitted to 60 to the
city for several hours. Montmedy u
the principal base Of the Fifth army.
commanded by the crown prince. Enor.
nous stores Of war materials were
gathered here. Added to this there
was the army field post institute and
the executive oflces Of the railways a.
well as a number Of hospitals.
It was very lively in Montmedy.
Many wounded men were seen stroll.
ling through the city and an especially
large number Of officers all at home
were attached to single etapes. In
faultless uniform. carrying riding
whips, they strolled around This
point was about thirty-ive kilometers
behind Verdun and one hundred kilo-
meters from our former position. ~
we marched away shortly after noon
We suspected that we were being
taken to the neighborhood Of Verdun.