PEN PICTURES
GERMAN SNIPER IN CRUCIFIX
At Chemin des Dames, near Soissons, one night about the middle of
April, four Americans (one of Italian birth) belonging to the 102d
United States Infantry, made up a raiding party. Their objective was a
crucifix out in No Man's Land, about four hundred yards from their own
trench and within two hundred and fifty yards of the German trenches.
The crucifix was a monument containing a secret inner chamber reached
by a small spiral stairway. A Boche sniper concealed in this crucifix
had taken too large a toll of American soldiers at that point in the
line. The four night raiders left the American trench at one o'clock
in the morning. They crawled on their bellies through snow for one
hour before reaching the sniper's post. Seven yards per minute is a
snail's pace, but pretty good time in No Man's Land, where you must
remain motionless each time a star-shell lights up the darkness around
you and makes your discovery possible.
The Italian won the privilege of entering the crucifix to capture the
sniper. His weapon must be a silent weapon, for a shot would expose
the presence of the whole party. He chose a razor, and when he emerged
from the crucifix he brought with him, as proof that he had
satisfactorily executed his order, the Hun's rifle, fieldglasses, and
identification card. Needless to say, no further trouble from Boche
snipers was experienced at that point. The return trip was made with
less caution and they were discovered. When within fifty yards of
their own lines a heavy machine gun barrage opened upon them. It then
became a race for life, but they reached the safety of their own
trenches without a scratch.
GERMAN INFERNAL MACHINES
In the German dugouts all through the Argonne Forest and on the
battlefields were found a multitude of death-dealing devices intended
to invite the curiosity of the Yankee souvenir hunters.
In one dugout near the edge of the Forest we found a
mysterious-looking box which we let severely alone. I had seen the
diagram of a similar box, which had been carefully dissected by a
member of the Intelligence Squad. This German trap was a finely
polished box about fourteen inches long by six inches at its widest
part, and disguised as a music box. It had polished hinges and lock
and an alligator handle in the center of the top. It had also a
monogram in one corner. Inside the box were two squash-shaped grenades
about nine inches long and filling the whole center of the box. In
the big end of the box was a compartment filled with chaddite, a
yellow powder, eight times as powerful as dynamite. Attached to the
grenades were four friction handles so connected with the alligator
handle on top as to explode the bombs when the box was lifted. In
event of the frictions failing to work, or the intended victim opening
the box some other way there was a two-second fuse inserted in the end
of each bomb, and extending into the chaddite compartment, to be set
off by the removal of the lid.
A hand grenade was used by them which our boys called potato-mashers.
The head of the potato-masher was a can made of one-sixteenth-inch
brittle steel. The can was about seven inches long by four and
one-half inches in diameter. Around the inside of the can was a layer
of small steel cogs. Inside these a layer of small steel balls. The
next layer was of small ragged-edged scrap steel pieces and the next,
poisoned copper diamonds. The center was filled with chaddite. On
one end of the can was a hollow steel handle about eight inches long.
A string passing through this handle was attached on the inside to a
touch fuse imbedded in the chaddite; the other end of the string was
tied to a button on the handle. By pulling the button the fuse was set
off.
[Illustration: GERMAN WEAPONS]
Imagine the destruction wrought by one of these exploding in a company
of soldiers. I have seen many of them through the Argonne, but we had
been warned of their danger and chose other weapons as souvenirs.
A YANK TAKEN PRISONER
This story was from the lips of a doughboy whose home was in
Philadelphia. I had piloted Mr. Cross, of the Providence Journal,
through the surgical wards of Base Hospital No. 18. This was the Johns
Hopkins Hospital Unit located at Bazoilles (pronounced Baz-wy). One of
the nurses said, "Have you seen Tony in Ward N? He has a wonderful
story."
So we went to Ward N, and in a private room at the end of the ward
found our hero, who was rapidly recovering and anxious to be of
further service to the land of his adoption. His right eye was gone. A
German bullet was responsible for its loss. Thus wounded and unable to
escape he had been surrounded and taken prisoner by the Boche who
forced him to walk on ahead of them.
"When I was unable to drag along as fast as they demanded, I was shot
at by one of the Huns, the bullet making a flesh wound in my left leg.
They then decided to kill me and shot me through the heart, as they
supposed. I was left for dead, but the bullet had missed my heart. For
six days I lay out in an open field, living but unable to move."
Then his voice lowered as he told us the awful nauseating story of how
he endeavored to quench the unbearable thirst of those terrible days.
At last he was found by our men who had conquered and driven back the
Hun.
This brave Italian boy had suffered as few are ever permitted to
suffer and live, but his fine spirit was still unconquered. He was not
seeking pity. He told the story because we asked for it. He told it as
though it was the merest incident of his life. There was no word of
complaint at having suffered the losses which would cripple him for
life.
It is the same old story that all have told who have witnessed the
splendid courage of our men. I have seen thousands in the hospitals
and on the battlefield, many of them literally shot to pieces, and I
have yet to hear the first complaint. And only in two or three
instances have I heard even a groan escape the lips of a man, unless
he was under the influence of ether.
"ALLIED AIR FLEETS"
Having watched with keen interest the rapid growth and development of
the Allied air program, I was ready to be properly thrilled by the
maneuvers of our American squadrons operating in conjunction with the
army in preparation for the great Argonne drive.
I have seen three fleets in the air at one time over Avoncourt after
that wonderful offensive had been launched. Part were Liberty bombing
planes with their loads of destruction for German military bases. Part
were the speedy little "Spads" which were used as scout planes. They
were very light and small and capable of terrific bursts of speed.
I could appreciate the importance of the bombing planes, for I had
once been privileged to help load one of the monster Handley-Page
British bombing planes. It weighed seven tons, including its load of
sixteen 100-pound bombs, and was manned by two pilots and a machine
gunner.
I am conscious even yet of the thrills that pricked my spine, as this
monster with nineteen companions spurned the earth in a mad, rushing
leap out into space and sailed away into the night to let the
inhabitants of German towns know that "frightfulness" was a game at
which two could play.
The Liberty motors were highly praised by our pilots, and I am ready
to add my testimony to the steadiness and reliability of the "ship"
which was under so much discussion and investigation over here.
On October 10, with Lieutenant Wilson, of the 163rd Aero Squadron, in
a two-seated Liberty I took a "jump" over the Meuse Valley. As we
bumped over the ground in our first sudden dash, and then birdlike
rose quickly into the air, my sensations were not the hair-raising
variety so often described by the thrilled amateur. When we "banked"
however, on a sharp turn, I had my first real sensation--I quickly
braced myself lest I fall overboard. At thirty-five hundred feet the
fields looked like green-and-brown patches, the forests like low
bushes, and the railroads, highways, and rivers like tracer lines
across the face of a map.
From that altitude the earth was beautiful. The enchantment of
distance had blotted out the rubbish heaps. The yellow waters of the
turbid streams glistened in the sun and the very mud itself, which the
day before had prevented my flight, was now but a smooth, golden
surface.
"A PUBLIC HANGING IN WAR TIME"
On July 12 it was rumored that a soldier had been sentenced to be hung
the next day at ten o'clock for an unspeakable crime. The gallows was
already built on the edge of the camp at Bazoilles. I saw it on my
afternoon trip and knew that the report was true. Being interested in
the psychology of such a scene on the men present, I put aside my
inward rebellion at so gruesome a sight and arranged my trip so as to
be present. I reached the camp at nine forty-five and was the last man
admitted. The gallows was built in the center of the semicircle facing
two hills which came abruptly together, leaving a large grass plot at
their base. This formed a natural amphitheater. About two thousand
soldiers, both white and colored, were seated on the grass inside a
rope inclosure. A company of soldiers from another camp had been
marched in to act as guards, and they formed a complete circle
standing just outside the ropes and extending down to the gallows on
either side.
Many French civilians and visiting soldiers lined the edges or looked
down from points of vantage on the hillside. I stood on one side about
one hundred feet from the "trap." At nine fifty a Red Cross ambulance
drove up, and the prisoner, his hands bound behind him, alighted, and
accompanied by a guard and the officials, walked up a dozen wooden
steps to the platform. He was escorted to the front of the platform,
and in a clear, strong voice spoke to the almost breathless crowd. He
acknowledged with sorrow his crime, and urged upon all the necessity
of being true to God and their country. He stepped back on the "trap,"
the black cap was drawn over his head, the noose placed about his
neck, the "trap" sprung, and with a sickening thud he dropped to his
doom. For twenty minutes, from nine fifty to ten ten, his body hung
there before he was pronounced by the attending surgeon officially
dead.
I never witnessed a twenty minutes of such deathly silence. Two guards
fainted, and the effect on the crowd was indescribable. I overheard a
colored fellow say, "I never want to do anything bad again as long as
I live."
The body was immediately cut down, placed in a coffin, and taken in
the ambulance to its burial. It was a silent, thoughtful company that
went out from that tragic scene.
"THE AMERICAN DEAD"
"Will we be able to locate the body of our boy?"
So often has this question been asked me that I must take a moment to
answer it.
I watched two American military burial plots grow from the first lone
grave to small cities of our noble dead. One was at Bazoilles, half
way between Chaumont and Toul. The other was at Baccarat near the
Alsatian border. Each grave was marked with a little wooden cross
bearing the name and rank of the soldier, and beside each cross an
American flag.
Many were buried in French cemeteries. At Neufchateau a section was
set aside for the use of our American army. When I visited it there
were about one hundred new-made graves all plainly marked, and fresh
flowers on each grave.
Of course most of the French cemeteries were Catholic, and Protestant
bodies could not be granted burial within the walls. A touching story
is told of an American Protestant soldier buried close outside the
wall of a Catholic graveyard. During the night French civilians tore
down the wall at that place and rebuilt it around their comrade of a
different faith. It was a beautiful symbol of the new dawn of peace
when all nations and all creeds shall recognize the common brotherhood
of all God's children.
FRANCE A GREAT SCRAP HEAP
Now that the war is over, France is a vast junk heap of arms and
equipment that cost a mint of money and the brains and lives of
millions of men.
For generations to come the soil of France will be disclosing to the
peasants who till her fields, the fragments of war's destructive power
and the bones of heroes who bled and died.
On the battlefields I saw innumerable quantities of equipment,
together with guns and ammunition, which had cost millions to produce
but were valueless in so far as their future use was concerned. I saw
the Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries Garden in Paris packed with
one thousand captured German guns and more than a score of Boche
planes and observation balloons. On one great pile were three thousand
Boche helmets, carefully wired together and closely guarded so that
souvenir hunters could not slip them away. It seemed a terrible price
to pay for object lessons for the great celebrations commemorating the
overthrow of autocracy. But having paid the price it was right to use
the trophies.
As the boys went into battle they left behind them great salvage piles
of things they would not need in the fight. As they came out of the
battle they left great piles of salvage which they fervently hoped the
world would never need to use again.
With the world's war bills mounting into the billions, and the value
of the salvage piles an almost negligible amount, the material waste
of war is appalling. If it will teach the nations to be as generous
toward the great reconstruction program as they were toward the
overthrow of that autocracy which threatened the world's freedom, then
the waste of war has not been in vain.
At Bar le Duc I saw great warehouses under management of the French
government stacked to the roof with auto tires and tubes. I had driven
with our Division Y.M.C.A. chief, Dr. Norton, from Neufchateau to
exchange an auto load of tires which our half dozen cars had worn out,
for an equal number of new tires. And I knew that these great piles
formed but a small percentage of the hundreds of thousands of rubber
shoes needed for the vehicles of war.
I visited the great Renault automobile plant at Nancy, which the
French government had taken over for a repair station. Literally
thousands of army trucks and official cars were passing through this
station in a constant stream, either to be quickly repaired or thrown
into the junk heap. Our own case was typical. Our Renault truck had
broken down at Luneville, twenty miles from Nancy. No local man could
make the repairs. Through our American army headquarters at Nancy we
applied to this French repair station. At eight o'clock next morning I
was on hand to pilot a heavy wrecking truck to our car. A towing
hawser was attached; their second pilot took charge of our truck, load
and all; and before noon we were safely landed at the repair station.
A hasty examination by a Renault expert revealed the fact that ten
days or more would be required to make the necessary repairs. A day or
two was the longest time they could allow any car to remain. So after
searching in vain for another garage that would undertake the
repairs, we towed the truck to our Y.M.C.A. garage and stored it, that
it might be salvaged at some future time.
France is full of broken-down trucks, touring cars, and ambulances; of
worn out engines and the rolling stock of her railways. From the
English Channel to the Persian Gulf her battlefields are littered with
brass and iron and wood and steel. Besides these there are the great
piles of garments of wool and rubber and leather, and the wasting
stores of army blankets and cots and surgical supplies.
Into the larger salvage piles will go the multitude of tents and
temporary wooden barracks for the housing of the fighters from all
nations, who for four dreadful years held that "far-flung battle
line."
A part of this larger salvage pile will be the temporary hospitals. In
less than a year America alone built and equipped hospitals which
were capable of accommodating a million wounded.
Then from the battle-line to the Atlantic coast we must think of the
vast supply stations and warehouses, the great engineering plants and
repair shops. America not only built in France the greatest ice plant
in the world but she made _every_ preparation on a gigantic scale.
When she entered the war she went in to win, even if it would take ten
million of her men to finish the job. Had she done less, the final
chapter would not yet have been written, and a different story might
needs have been told.
HOSPITAL BARRACKS
Day by day I watched the magic growth of the wooden hospital barracks
at Rimacourt with accommodations for fifteen thousand men, and was
interested in the engineering feat by which an abundance of fresh
water was pumped from drilled wells in an old chateau to a great
reservoir on the mountain side, and piped from there to every building
and ward.
I watched the same process at Bazoilles as, nestled in the wonderful
Meuse valley, that great hospital grew from a single base (the Johns
Hopkins Unit) until it included seven bases and was able to care for
thirty-five thousand wounded.
I spent one night there ministering to the wounded as they were
unloaded from the great American Red Cross train. I watched the
process with pride and amazement. So well organized was the army Red
Cross that when a train was announced the ambulances loaded with
stretcher bearers were rushed to the unloading platform. In seven
minutes three hundred helpless men were gently taken from their
comfortable berths in the train and carried on stretchers to the
platform from which the ambulances speedily bore them to the waiting
wards.
During the night of which I speak five trainloads of gassed men from
the Chateau-Thierry fight were thus unloaded at Bazoilles.