The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1919-06-27
SEEING BATTLEFIELDS AND RUINED
AREAS OF FRANCE FOR FIRST Time
Writer Describes Sensations Experienced at First Sight Of Devas
tati0n Left in Wake Of War-Admation for the Wonderful
Spirit of the French People-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-
nltion-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
We're 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 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
verdun, is merely heap Of stones
and debris, entirely surrounded for
miles by torn and tortured earth re-
sembling plowed field, excepting for
the the craters made by exploding
T shells. Here were the bones and
!, skulls of dead Germans, empty shells,
, helmets and gas masks. Some Of the
, dugouts remain In the hillsides. This
is most desolate 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 al
= our backs we started on 7O-mile ride
to Reims. BY noon it was showing
hard. The road between Challon.
: and Reims had not been put il
:, as good repair as in some other sec
:. tons. Shell holes forced us to pro
= coed cautiously.
: Desolation Everywhere.
: We followed the Hindenburg line
"a which we crossed and recrossed sew
q. eral times during the morning. Mile
n of barbed-wire entanglements dug
Il outs, trenches and abandoned hut
pr stretched along the roadway. N
"a Mans land stretched before us 70
s- miles, We reached Fort de la Pom
20 pelle shortly after noon. The fort ha
been leveled to the ground, but W
10 were able to proceed 70 feet below tn
=. ground and along the tunnels LEAD
g. Ing to No Mans land. The bones c
n dead boches and horses are still vi
IN buried. Here we found abandOne
&c tanks and guns.
Reims a city Of 125,0OO before tn
= war, with many fine public building
Z Including the cathedral, now has lie.
chan dozen buildings standing and
: population of 1000 people. Refugee
I are just beginning to come back. ar
few shops are being opened. tt
beautiful cathedral with its wonderf
sta'Aed glass windows where kim
have been blessed. is mass Of ruiz
with nothing but the walls standin
German prisoners were removing Il
stones bricks and mortar from whe
the roof had fallen to the auditoriu
! below. 1t was estimated that
would take hundred prisoners wee
: TO remove the debris.
German prisoners are being used
repair the parts Of the buildin
{ that can be used us temporary gu,
tiers and in rebuilding the sewers a
water systems. 1t was here we S,
49, Germans hitched % wagons taking I