A visit to the French trenches in Flanders, under the auspices of
the French General Staff, is here described:
Standing in the shelter of a wonderfully ingenious and deep-dug
trench on what undoubtedly is the bloodiest battlefield in European
history, the most notable impression is one of utter surprise at
the absence of movement and the lack of noise.
Within one's range of vision, with a strong field glass, there are
probably concealed not fewer than 100,000 men, yet except for the
few French soldiers with rifles in their hands standing or kneeling
in the immediate vicinity and keenly peering over the flat land
toward the positions held by the Germans, no human presence was
noticeable.
A staff officer said that behind a slight slope 300 yards away many
German guns were hidden, but only an occasional burst of flame and
a sharp whirring sound coming from an indefinite point told of this
artillery.
A little forest to the left bristles with machine guns backed
by infantry in rifle pits and covered trenches. The approach to
these positions has been made almost impossible by barbed-wire
entanglements strewn with brush and branches of trees and having the
appearance of a copse of heather.
British, French, and Belgian troops are greeted with cheers by the
people as they march from spells of duty in the trenches to the
villages in the rear. These men are jaded and worn. They stay in the
trenches for days at a time and are constantly under artillery fire
as well as being subjected to infantry attacks.
As one group goes back to rest, another moves forward to take its
place, and the men going into action cheer those who are retiring.