The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-08-20
TRUE WAR STORIES
of SOLDIERS in FRANCE
verdun As It is Now.

Veroun AS " IS NoW.
More than two years ago the wet
blackness of midnight was broken
by thousand and one spurts oil
flame, as many cannon swelled into
mighty roar along line from
the Argonne forest over east to the
Mouse river 1t was the first Amer
lean army introducing itself to the
Germans. On that rainy cold morn
ing hundred thousand fighting
men from across the sea-many of
them strangers to battle-waded
in the mud of deep cut trenches for
the word to go forward against the
Hindenburg line called by it's max
ers impregnable, and having proved
that reputation against more than
one bitter assault of the troops of
France and Great Britain. In the
sickly light of the dawn of an ugly
day they went ahead. In the five
weeks that followed they fought out
that heartrendering battle, until on
Nov. they broke through the last
of the German defenses. And soon
after, the war ended.
More than two years ago it was.
Now those men except those who
sleep on the sloping Hill southeast
of the Romagne-have gone back
home, | was with them On that
morning they started, and l came
back to the scene of the greatest
battle in which troops of America
wora ayar pupappd
Over the hills northwest of Yer
dun silence reigns. 1t is not the
silence of peace, 1t is the silence
of death, | have seen the western
battle front from the coast. to Swift
zerland. | have seen the war torn
mud of the fields of Flanders, l
have seen the stretches of nothing
in the valley of the Somme. l have
seen the tortured terrain where
was Chemin-des-Dam have
seen the ruins of Ypres. i have
seen the remnants of scissors. l
have seen the tragic shell OF
Rheims. but there is no scene so
desolate, so stricken, so dead, as
the hills northwest of Verdun, over
which the Yankees fought to vic
tory two years ago.
Verdun Still Battle Scene.
They have filled UP the trenches
On many of the fronts of France,
and nature and the plowman have
blotted out many of the scars. The
people have come back to many of
he wrecked villages of other parts
If France, and children play amid
he wreck and ruin while their par
,nts patch up shelled houses. But
lot so in the Mouse Argonne. No
)ne has been so hardy and so brave
Is to try to restore that barren
stretch. The trenches are there
yet, and the wire entanglements,
md the old dugouts. and the spots
If ground stained yellow by the
hateful mustard gas. 1t is there as
var left it. No trees to grow and
10 flowers to bloom. Stand on the
op of deadmans hill and look as
ar as the eye can see and there Is
lothing living. No human being
moves in sight. The countryside
las died and it's resurrection is not
-et. There is no scene so dismal.
picture if you can the view. Hill
fter rolling hill stretch away in all
directions from this highest of
hem all Imumerable brown
races of trenches wriggle across
hem in thousand twists. Rows
f tree stumps tell where a road
FOUND its way. Rusty wire in sym
letrical lines run in all directions. ,
he one time fields are potted as if ,
y smallpox-like the face of a !
ian who had died from the dis ,
ase. Millians upon millions of ,
hells did that. own there in a val !,
~ IS sort of white smudge. 1t ,