Long processions of civilian refugees lined the roadsides in the invaded
area during the days of battle--the pitiful hosts of those fleeing from
the German guns and the terrors of German occupation. Many thousands of
villagers and farmers whose little homes had been devastated by the
first German occupation and by the battle of the Somme had been trying
bravely to restore their ruined houses and cultivate the tortured soil
again. With the aid of American friends hundreds of cottages had been
built, heaps of shattered masonry cleared away, shops and schools
opened, and French, British, and American committees had formed a
nucleus around which new life was gradually growing up. No less than
5,500 acres of the devastated land evacuated by the Germans a year ago
were again under cultivation--enough to feed 16,000 persons a year.
All this work of the stricken inhabitants, with their replanted fruit
trees and scanty stores of new implements, had to be abandoned almost at
a moment's notice. Many of the peasants, stunned by the new catastrophe,
had to be aroused to flight by the friendly orders of the retreating
British officers. The Red Cross workers, the Dames de France, and a
group of courageous American women--the Smith College girls--aided the
refugees day and night in their retreat from town to town until the
German advance was checked a few miles short of Amiens.
The American Red Cross transported thousands from the towns and villages
behind the British lines, working thirty automobiles night and day, and
carrying 2,000 to friends in Paris in the first few days. These were
mostly women, children, and aged persons who had been awakened by the
Red Cross workers on the morning of the 25th, taken to the railroad in
trucks, and thence transported by rail in special trains. Most of the
refugees were able to save only a few of their belongings, which were
wrapped up in shawls and bed sheets, or carried in baskets or handbags.
One woman, 81 years old, carried only a basket of live chickens, and
cried because she had been unable to save two rabbits. Another woman
carried a few cooking utensils under her arm. Many women and children
were crying because they had been separated from relatives and friends.
Children only a month old and people who had reached the age of 90 were
alike numbered among the unfortunates.