Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-02-13
Miss Apker Visits Battle Scene


France, November p.
Just week after the armistice was
signed eight of us girls, accompanied
by a sergeant, went in a truck to see
q little Of devastated France, and the
country which just few days ago had
been under heavy shell fire. Our hos
pital was only few miles back of a
particular front to which we were at
tached, so we were not long in seeing
a change Of country. The morning
was very cold, so we all wore our
sweaters, and huge coats, called trench
coats. / did not have one of the lat
ter, so borrowed one. It was very
much too large and too long. but de-
cided to wear it anyway, though later
I wished | had left it behind.
The first few miles looked peaceful
and pretty. They we came close to
a hill which you have probably read of
IN the papers. 1t was, the hill at the
very top of which stands the statue
of Joan Of Arc. You have read how
the big shells have made huge holes
in the hillside all around the statue.
and that the hill has been under Ger
man shell fire for four years, and still
the statue stands intact. Somehow,
as I looked at it, l thought of our
Miss Liberty back in New York har-
Dor. From the above hill the Land on
both sides Of the road was full of
she'll holes, both great and small, and
masses of barbed wire entanglements
which were rods wide. The barbed
wire is not like that we have at home,
as it is what | call more barbed.
Much Of it was red with rust. Then
we came to the trenches, German on
one side\of us and American on the
other. They seemed to begin at the
side Of the road and wind out into the
field; also along the road were dug
outs camouflaged with boughs OF
trees. In the edge of these trenches
we saw some very large shells, so
we stopped to pick some up. We
wanted to go into the trenches and
dugouts. but the boys with US said
that there were still dead Germans in
there, and the odor was very bad. We
told them that nurses were used TO
bad odors, but they fatty refused to
let US go in at all. As we went on we
saw in many tall trees observation
posts camouf1aged by the green and
brown Of the trees. Here and there
were movie picture machines, great
and small guns completely buried IN
the earth, except for the place where
shell, found its way very often. Some
guns were on wheels and all daubed
up with green, yellow, black and
brown paint In one place was dead
horse and in another were the remains
of what at one time had been first
aid station. We passed through what
had been small cities and villages
which were completely destroyed and
no one left there but soldiers. These
towns. like most towns Of France
were surrounded by stone walls. A
great deal of these walls had been
blown away, but in order to make
walls still appear to be there, some
sort of gray mating of wall shade was
hung from wires. The parts OF the
walls left were peppered with flying
shrapnel, which had Clipped the grey
stone of the wall off and left white
spots. There were many round and
square holes in the walls, cut for the
purpose of pointing the muzz1e of
machine gun.
For the first little distance could
walk erect and then all OF sudden i
was a case of going on hands and
knees. How | could ever do it with
that great coat, mistIetoe in one hand
and a souvenir jar in the other, was
more than I could guess. There were
several people behind me, so there
was no turning around It was darl
as night. My big coat caught onto
something, and for two or three min
utes / could not get either way. =,
thot then that if I ever did get on
Of that place no amount OF curiosity
could ever tempt me to go in again
But did later go through some others
but we had a candle and were no
obliged to crawl.
There were sleeping rooms, eaci
having several hunks, two or thre'
deep. In the dining room we founf
many empty wine bottles. The who's
place was wired with electricity. b.
the time we had thoroughly sisitet
this place it was fast growing COLI
and dark, so we started back to on
cwn camp. The darkness prevente'
us from seeing much Of the countr,
on our way home. we had time .
think about what we had seen am
wonder how our boys ever gained an,
ground at all over that rough, hili
country, covered with undefDrusr
The road was very rough and narrow
and several times we stopped to allo7
American infantry and artillery Z
pass Their Supper cooked On thea
rolling Kitchen stoves aa they niarche