Show bombing women and children atA miens ave gripp copyright 1918 we left paris at 11 on the tuesday e eang follow ing the open ing of the great battle on the westy f ern front unable to cut of the railway corn muni cation at akiens amiens with their land forces the germans hid sent airplanes over to blow up the railway station and tracks to interrupt the traffic bombs had been drop ped in many places one hit the train that left pans four hours ahead of us and another had hit the track jua ahead of us BO that when dawn came we were stranded about three miles from akiens amiens looking out of the window we could see airplanes flying back and forth singly in pairs and three or fours all along the highways people were fleeing before the onrush of the germans women and children bad gathered what few belongings they could convey and were walk ing along the road and pathways trying to reach the station hoping to go somewhere anywhere that would afford safety they used wheelbarrows baby carts top wagons anything with wheels that would carry a load large or small As the morning wore on passengers began to leave the train one man with important papers that he want the germans to get caught a train back to pans with a plan of reaching london by way of havre we were going by way of boulogne hunger came with the noontime and we left the train to bunt food which we found after a walk of about two miles A house had been abandoned and with it some bread and a dish of salmon which we abed it was while on his road to akiens amiens that we were brought to a realization of what he germans really had done I 1 had been in the city two weeks before it was occupied by women and children and old men in 1906 it had a population of the streets on the first were clean and orderly the people well housed feeling safe c forty miles from the battle front but on this day in march all was different fifty german airplanes had dropped bombs on the city blowing up homes and store build inge killing women children and old men added to the population of two weeks before were mounded soldiers and fied cros nurses we could 1 see many of the men brought from i the front being carried to the station i on stretchers to be taken aurthur back to french or british hospitals 4 by the roadside we saw about sixty soldiers resting they were in carried but they appeared weary and worn abat ish officer told us that they had been in a hospital nearer the front that an ambulance had taken out ane patients who were unable to t walk and that these so far recover ed as to be nearly ready for their discharges had walked several anes to get an ay from the ger man forces I 1 did not learn what became of the hospital itself beside a bouse with the roof gone and part of a wall blown in stood a woman with a babe wrapped in a shawl she looked about bewilder ed dazed she could not enter the home forat was in ruins besides r there was every likelihood of more v dropped en frantically at a man in a passing horse cart but the vehicle was crowded and ho heeded not she crossed the street sank by the road bide and hugged the babe close to her breast and the german kaiser calls on god and man to witness the glory y of his arms we went back to our train but found it had gone again we hurried through the of terror and devastation to the station three miles hoping to catch the there w two treeka before athen I 1 wanted to enter the station and tiar a train for paris I 1 bad to show my amen ofin 7 salti tap have an officer vouch for me and give the ticket agent the edict fare this time the ticket agent had left the guard and porters were missing little remained aut chios the only thing systematic about the whole was the orderly manner in winch men were carrying in stretchers bearing the wounded from the front and placing them on a red cross train in the station we soon guessed stat our train hid not been able to pass through the station and walked through the station and along about two miles of tracks to find it there were six or eight tracks in the yards and we passed from one to another climbing over trains and through cars to make sure we were not missing bourg the glass was shattered in every car we saw bomba thrown over the area had worked the havoc many refugees had come into the yard and had piled on cars to which no engine was attached as if hoping by some chance an engine would come along and take them somewhere anywhere to safety there were old women and young women old men and children huddled together fearful lest the wrath of the german hordes should overtake them we went through these scenes for more than two miles and found our train about a half mile from where we had left it with a war on the german and a perfect right according to the rules of international warfare to bomb that railway station to blow up the tracks for it was through that station and on those tracks that men munitions and food were sent from the south to supply the army of the north and an army has a right to cut off the reinforcements and supplies of an enemy army but there can be no rule of humanity or decency no right of any kind in law or precedent that would permit the germans to send over airplanes and with them bomb women children old men wounded soldiers and nurses who were in akiens amiens that night when the germans withdrew irom one city after the first battle of the somme they blew the front out of buildings with system and thoroughness it appeared as though one had come along with a huge cleaver trying to chop off the front hilf of each building after the battle the germans possessed this city and while of the buildings showed the result of shell fire in battle there was plenty of evidence of deliberate del wrecking of explosives having been placed in an entire row of three story stone buildings used for stores on the first floors and dwellings on the second and third floors and dis chirped with ruinous effect this was done just before Hinden burgs famous voluntary retreat after which the trench came baal to their city they found one building intact it waa their city hall of course they conjectured and were even generous enough to ascribe to the german generals some fine sentiment for having left their public building even when they wrought rum nil about it the mayor and others gathered to celebrate chev opened the door and stepp ed onto the threshold there was a terrific ei and the building were blown to pieces there wa very little even of the cellar walla left bombs had been placed in the building and wire attached to the threshold with the result been in a residence a boquet of flowers W rh tar th afao TO it a string was attached and when the boquet was lifted there was an explosion with death and wreckage following in another building a bust of the kaiser was left that to prove a germin joke on the british the retreating foe must have felt certain that when english troops saw that bust some soldier would grab it and dish it to the floor but the british had become cautious by this time they had a german prison who was familiar with the city and they told him to go 10 first and up the bust he refused then they retired to a distance and took a shot at the kaiser the bust flew off the pedestal and with it came the explosion that wrecked the building |