Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-03-06
BATTLEFIELD
OF WORLD WAR
ARE UNCHANGED
Hopeless DesolatiOn Marks
Scenes of Conflict in
France.
LAND IS UNTOUCHED
By WEBB MILLER.

RHEIMS, March Glitter, hopeless
desolation, mile after mile, hour after
hourl
Such IS the lasting impression Of a
drive across the battlehelds Of the Cham
payne and Argonne today.
Like a vast brownish scar across the
FERTILE fields Of France. these battlehelds
still lie, scarcely touched by human
hands three yearse after the last shot
was fired.
Only in the towns and villages are
there many visible signs Of revival
There the tenacious peasants have focked
back and patched up their shattered
homes. They are eking out a bare hv-
ing AS for the thousands whose homes
were wiped of the earth, nobody seems
to know what has become Of them.
But It IS IN the wide stretches between
the villages that the full horror Of what
happened here can still be appreciated.
MILE AFTER MILE
OF DESOLATION.
Throughout one whole morning the
correspondent rode across the desOlate
country from Fl. PompeIle to the center
Of the Argonne, seeing eew human beings
or signs OF human habitations. As far
as the eye could reach lay decOlution.
The land looks as though q scourge had
passed over. Here and there the ridges
show Jagged outlines against the sky
entirely, denuded by terrific shellhre with
only few shattered, dead stumps show
ing where once was a thick wood.
Along the line OF the front for miles
the fields lie almost as they did the last
day OF the war-stiu q no-man's land.
covered with scraggly weeds interviewer
80 : - He
have turned up the chalky subsOil and
only TIE hardest weeds grow.
On the low ridges where the shellfre
was heaviest the soil is literally dead
the churning by explosions and repeated
castings have killed the fertility so that
nothing ever will grow.
BARBED WIRE
STILL STANDS.
The old trench lines and dugout shell
tiers have fallen in, but in many places
the old lines Of barbed wire entaigle-
ments, sometimes fifty yards in width,
still stand, choked By dry weeds.
Just beyond Ft. Pompelle three rusty
derelict tanks used by the Germans IN
an attack upon the fort lie in exactly
the positions where they were halted by
French shellfire.
In this region the earth literally is
criss-crossed with old trench systems,
and covered with the debris OF war. Only
the barest start has been made in rec
lamation, evidenced by the piles Of
knotted barbed wire stacked up along
side the road. Nearer Rheims gangs Of
men are working to clear the ground OF
explosives.
The famous FIT Pompelle, the scene
Of some of the fercest fighting of the
war, is now merely a pile Of chaLky
bummocks at the top Of a hill dominat-
ing the surrounding country for miles.
Occasionally one will find a mangled
length of steel girder or the checked
mouth Of an underground passage-the
only indications that this chalk heap was
ever 4 fort Sometimes the twO-inch
thick steel IS pierced with holes Ike a
kitchen coIlander. The base Of the hill is
fnterlaced with row after row Of barbed
wire entanglements.
CITY OF RHEIMS
Is COMING BACK
The city Of Rheims Itself Is coming
back To the casual observer the task
looks welI-nigh hopeless. Out Of 1900
houses, 5000 were utterly destroyed and