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Show TRENCHES LEFT BY THE GERMANS ONE LONG GRAVE Retreat on Somme Reveals Picture of Ghastliness Which Horrifies the " Advancing British. TEUTONS PLAGUED BY THEIR OWN DEAD Bodies Thrown Out of Dugouts Blown Back in Fragments; Gruesome Sights Seen. FROM THE STAFF CORRESPONDENT CORRESPOND-ENT OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, BRITISH HEADQUARTERS IN FRANCE, March 28, via London, 8:40 p. m. Now that the desperate episodes in the war, known in history as the battles of the' Somme, have been definitely ended by the German retreat from Arras to the Aisne, it has been possible more leisurely to investigate the conditions which existed along the German front just prior to the backward swing to the so-called Hindenburg line. When the retreat first began, more than a month ago, the British swept over some old Somme positions held .by the Germans, and even the most hurried glimpse of the evacuated trenches indicated indi-cated how untenable they had become, and why it was decided to run no more risks ot another allied offensive in this sector. Fivemiles of slogging alonr the old German lines in the vicinity ot Ba-paume Ba-paume today revealed a picture of ghastliness which may never be seen again in this or any other war. The front line was .a longj open, dilapidated, crumbling grave, which disappeared in mud at times, but could be picked up further on by means of the bodies that marked the way. Scenes of Horror. One realized with a shudder how the men doomed to live in these trenches had been plagued by their own dead. Such a ceremony as decent burial had been wholly out of the question, and there was no means of conveying the bodies to the rear. It had been like passing through a fiery rain from hades to bring up food and water to the living. liv-ing. So, the dead had simply been tossed tfut of the trenches, only to be blown back again by an exploding shell. Sometimes Some-times they came back in fragments, for there were arms, legs, feet and hands everywhere. Occasionally graves had been dug in the sides of the trench itself, but the dead could not rest there. At frequent intervals inter-vals the inevitable skeleton hands and feet protruded from the trench walls. Grim sights this war has had for the men who passed up and down these trenches during the long and bitter nights of winter. What the Guns Did. It has been an enthralling thing to stand by the British guns in the last three or four months ana wonder what was the meaning of all their continuous continu-ous roar. There was no set battle in progress and thq gunners said it was merely the "dajy hale'' going on to keep Fritz unhappy. The hideous revelations rev-elations of the German trenches, how-ever, how-ever, give the gruesome answer to what the guns were doing. In some places there were veritable mangled masses of what were once human "beings. "be-ings. Neither by dav nor hv night had the Germans rest. Their trusted barbed wire, in which they always place such great reliance, had been swept completely com-pletely away over thousands of yards, and they dared not venture out to repair re-pair it. All rtraee of communication trenches leading to the front lines weVe wiped out, and it has been necessary to bring up supplies and relief at night over a country blown into endless shell holes, many of which were filled to such a depth with water that, men were drowned in them. White bits of broad tape could be seen here and there attached at-tached to the iron posts. These were for the purpose of guiding the men up to the front, line. Fields of Death. These pathways over the fields of death also were strewn with fragments frag-ments of human bodies. Some of the dead had the look of mummies. One of the fallen soldiers had his right arm thrown over his rifle, as if his last impulse was to protect this weapon of defense. But there was no defense against the constant shelling. Some pieces of metal thrown about by the high explosive shells must ' have weighed 'at least ten pounds; the result re-sult of hitting a man with a ten-pound bullet can easih' be imagined. At one point in the trenches was the lower half of a German officer, identified hv the boots and leggings he wore. His legs were crossed tailor fashion. Trench helmets of heavy steel had great holes torn in them. The front line, of course, was seamed with the inevitable deep German dugouts, dug-outs, but even these had not been immune. im-mune. There were hundreds of direct hits on top of them, which must have made life intensely miserable and hazardous haz-ardous within. Around the famous Butte de War-leneourt War-leneourt the German trenches have entirely en-tirely disappeared. The entire furv of tho Somme fighting once swirled about I this somewhat insignificant mound of (Continued tn Pago rive.) TRENCHES PRESENT GHASTLY PICTURE (Continued from Page One.) powdered chalk, just off of Bapaume road, wdtich is generally believed to have been a pre-historic tomb. The butto now marks the death place not only of one supposedly distinguished pre-historic. man, but thousands of young warriors. The geographical paltriness of the Butte de, YVarlcneourt really emphasizes tho wonderful importance of any high bit of ground in stationary warfare. Tlie So 111 me battlefields tcday appear ap-pear like some great refuse dump. Litter Lit-ter is strewn everywhere. The evacuated evac-uated German back area reminds one strikingly of the scenes around a deserted de-serted mining camp in which the gold veins have given out. |