Show BATTLE OF SOISSONS AS SEEN BY WRITER WHITER ON FIRING LINE by JOHN ASHTON special correspondent of tho the chicago tribune paris I 1 have lust just returned to parts paris to rest up a day or two and get a few necessaries after a week at the front of the lett left win wing of the allied armies who are taxing facing general voa TOU clucks army farther to the east in a line extending from reims to near verdun the french are holding their ground against a fierce onslaught of the germans under the prince of at wurtem burg 1 I will recount what I 1 hay have a witnessed during the last few days leaving Mea bijeaux wo we made our way through varennes Va rennea and lizy the scene of fierce fighting during the battle ot of the marne some details of at which I 1 gave in my first letter all the dead have now been interred and the wounded removed from tile the several deserted villages th through rough which we passed find wrecked german plane detore before arriving at laerte milan wo we came across a german aeroplane which had been brought down by t the he british the english flying squad have been doing grand work in the air not only as scouts but in attacking hostile air craft it Is reported that no less leas than seventeen german aviators have fallen victims to the F english dg flying men on approaching villers Cott erets in the middle of the forest of 0 that name wo carno across several military pluto auto by the side of the route which the germans bad abandoned in their hurried flight to the north twos awo I 1 of these were marked fold feld post bosti field or military post A little far ther on we encountered six large oer gert man motor trucks which had evl f dently been destroyed eby bythe abe geri gen mans everything was waa burnt up eal ex capt the iron work these va wagons gous had bad been lett left in the road to delay pursuit but the french had overturned them into the ditch on each side of the road meet german prisoners Pr loner it was dark when we arrived at villere before wo we had bad time to get out of our auto I 1 heard a cry volle voile les lee Alle Allemand mandal sl here came the Ger germans manal and indeed a moving gray mass soon boon came into sight surrounded by a cavalry escort thero there were about of them prisoners marching in the cold rain many of them wore red cross arm bands an and d I 1 noticed a few omeera officers among the bunch their express lonn was sour and sullen but considering their arl privations vat ions they looked fit enough aphis physically these were men that had got lost in the forest and failed to catch up with their columns many prisoners are taken in a similar way ou on both both sides sometimes they come straggling in halt starved to death pass night in a chateau wo we passed the night in an old chateau the town was waa full of troops and the hotels packed with officers so BO we were very lucky to get under cover at all A few days previously the germans had occupied the town the staff having made their headquarters at this same chateau the chamber maid lett left in charge of the house the owner and his wife having fled told us that the germans had taken away some valuable tapestries the smaller tapestries had been left they had also taken away some silver plate but had left behind many pieces of considerable value we slept on the floor in the library in a separate building one of the finest private libraries I 1 have ever seen been containing several thousand volumes A very elegant secre secret taire alre in the library had been forced up the contents ransacked and the top wrenched off and thrown on the floor I 1 had nothing to cover me with and as it was cold I 1 slept very little we could hear the guns booming the greater part of the night approach the firing line starting out early to in the direction of Sols soissons sons we came upon the thirteenth regiment of at french artillery at but five miles from the latter town we could hardly believe we were so close to the firing line but there they were twelve guns known as aa the sev enty five pounding away across the valley to where the germans vere in trenched we stopped our auto at a respectable distance and approached the batteries on foot the ammunition wagons and extra horses and men were all drawn up silent and motionless behind a hedge a short distance from the guns there was no danger then as the germans wore were replying only to other french batteries lower down the valley very soon the men not busy at the guns began to surround us begging tobacco and cigarettes it Is an aw tul ful thing for these poor soldiers to be deprived of the comforting weed I 1 saw a great deal of this later on the field and at hospitals we hjad had intended to go directly into soissons Sols sons by the main road but the french officers dissuaded us saying that the germans would certainly abell our autos so we went by another route to go by Vaux vauxbuin buin a village lying in the bottom of the valley two and one half miles from Sols soissons sons under german shell shelf fire wo we stopped at an ancient esque chateau turned inta a hospital 0 4 inquire about the wounded ilard hard ly had bad we adiv arrived d 1 in front or of the gates gatea when german shells began screeching over our heads we scarcely inov where to go tor for safety A fearful cro croli h on our right just behind the hospital showed tb that at th the a german range was getting nearer some of our party naturally became alarmed then wn nil all crouched dowa behind our autos ast as another shot whistled close to us and dropped la n garden two of the spent pieces actually fell at our feet anti and a few secand afterwards another spent piece of shell still hot struck one of our party on the leg it was evident that we were in great reat danger some soma ono one said eald by the cars it was a good job we did not take lake this advice but we might have done it it if at that moment a woman at the door of the village wine shop across the street had not should come inside for gods sakel flee flea into a cellar r we wa did not need twice asking hardly had we got across the threshold when a tremendous noise like a million rawhide whips cracking at the 8 same ame moment followed by the noise 0 falling masonry showed that we were in tor for a regular bombardment everybody rushed for or the cellar As an soon boon as the dust and had cleared away someone crept up the steps to look out and returned saying baying one of the tha turrets on each side of the entrance gates to the castlo castle had been completely demolished by the last she shell and still they came and there we huddled looking into each others ey eyes es as well as the dim light would admit in that latife wine cellar Us its solid vaulted root that we prayed played might not give way vay should the house bouie be struck cli I 1 ahall never far forget ge t the time spent in that cellar there were twenty twentythree three of us in eluding about seven women ot of the village and a little littie ay boy we were there from 10 30 a m until blittle a after noon with shells dropping all around us ono one dropped five yards yard from the door the shock breaking breakie 9 every pane of glass in the house and making an enormous hole hold in the road another shell struck the ground about twelve feet in front 0 our cars just grazing and mashing a portion of at tae village cross everything has haa an end and we could hear the shells bursting farther and farther away still it was deemed prudent to lie low for a bit eat as shells scream after a time one ot at the villagers went out at a rear door and brought bilk back a big dish of fried chipped potatoes and bread so that with the wine in the cellar wo we made a hearty lunch under the circumstances we were very hungry as we had bad eaten nothing since the previous evening when it was safe to get out we found that the shell that dropped near the cars care hid had burst two tires on the car I 1 rode in bad smashed all three of the wind shields and filled the car bodies and covers full of holes tho the cars looked as it if they had bad been peppered with machine guns luckily the engines were not damaged in the least the germans being deeply in trenched in old chalk quarries a a sort of natural fortress in the hillsides hill sides overlooking Sois soissons sous continued to reply to the numerous french guns with impunity and occasionally to bombard soissons Sols sons and up to the time of my leaving this samo same thing had been going on for over 0 week soissons Sols sons la Is in a pitiable state the germans have not spared its old cathedral ill edral with its two gothic spires from the rear of the hospital at Vaux vauxbuin buin wo we had a fine view of this grand old landmark one of tho the steeples to Is broken off about halt way and the other has a big hole in tho the side plainly seen three miles off I 1 passed about four days here the artillery firing was terrific from morning to night the rho battle ranges 0 ver over an enormously extended front I 1 saw some shockingly wounded men while at Vaux vauxbuin buin the night before I 1 men were brought in 11 with fearful injuries in different parts of the apdy A A german shell had dropped among eight artillerymen artilleryman artillery men serving ong one of the french guns the other three men were killed on an the spot this Is just juat an incident among hundreds that are happening every day at one village I 1 passed through where the germans had left wounded most of whom were brought in under cover two days after the battle by the r rench french the doctors asked me implored me to try and get some milk tor for the tha wounded nearly all the cattle have been driven out of the tha country to safer places or have been requisitioned either by the german or to the french forces many lives ere are lost lose on both sides through exposure ani and lack of attention after being wounded cases of gangrene and tetanus are nt not infrequent the doctors and nurses are doing heroic work but it often happens that they are very much overcrowded before they have a chance to remove those hose wounded who are able to be sent to other hospitals at the hospital was vaa crowded there were people therland there and tho the house had ha donly only accommodations for |