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Show i WAIT FOR DEATH COMING FROM AIR Soldiers on Macedonian Front Stand Helplessly Idle While Raiders Hover Above. SUN BRINGS GERMAN FLIERS Civilians as Well as Combatants at Saloniki Know That Bomb Throwers Throw-ers May Be Expected When Sky Is Clear. Arnoldo Fraccaroli, well known as correspondent of the Corriere della Sera, is at present in Saloniki for his paper, and writes the following interesting inter-esting account of scenes and incidents in I .and around Saloniki, giving a graphic word picture of the situation: "Sunday is bomb day," he says. "The sun brings the aviators and the aviators bring the bombs, but nevertheless, never-theless, the people like to see the sun shine here. It puts new hope, new warmth in the blood. The soldiers at once smile and laugh again; the chill is taken out of the air, and even the telegraph poles lose their melancholy appearance. Who knows, perhaps the wire strung on those poles will now bring us some good news? The sun is shining; the beautiful winter sun, and hope and love are revived, and the people begin to feel that things will be as they were before the war. However, How-ever, that those German aviators will again make their appearance there is no doubt. They always come on sunshiny sun-shiny days, and we have to put up with it. It is war. The French aviators inspect in-spect the country from Giewgheli to : Petrow, bombard the German-Bulgarian positions near the border, and the German aviators come and bombard bom-bard us. "I am just now near the first line trenches, at that angle where the trenches run from west to south to the point where they connect with the British trenches, forming the right wing of this front, which then runs down to the gulf of Orfano. Names, of course, I cannot mention, but I may say that here we are about forty kilometers kilo-meters from Saloniki. Work is progressing pro-gressing in the fortification of this line, which is expected to withstand the attack at-tack that the enemy will soon make. The soldiers on this front are experts in the building of trenches and dugouts, dug-outs, and they were brought here for invited me to breakfast, and I was surprised sur-prised at the luxury of the furnishings in his little room. He actually had a real table of wood, some china plates, a few chairs and some tin drinking cups. He did not object to my bringing bring-ing some preserves with me, and during dur-ing the meal they were quite welcome Suddenly came the cry from the out side: " 'The aviators! The aviators!' "The soldiers had stopped work in the trenches and were pointing skyward.' sky-ward.' There in the blue ether at a height of only 600 meters we saw an aeroplane, and as the aviator emerged from the shadow of a cloud and the sun shone on his machine there was a cry of joy: " 'A Frenchman!' "But other voices were heard: " 'Yes, but see, there's another one coming, yes, and still another, and still another flying very high. There, those two fellows up there are Germans.' "The four aeroplanes were flying to ward the border. The two lower machines ma-chines were French, and they were 1 rising higher, no doubt with the objeel of engaging the Germans in battle. The Germans had come from the di rection of Saloniki, where, no doubt they had thrown their bombs. Ol course, the day was so beautiful thai we could expect that. In the distance we saw smoke and dust rising, followed fol-lowed a few moments later by the sound of an explosion. The soldiers are shaking their fists at the German machines and cursing and swearing at them. Again there is an explosion, then another this time very much nearer to us. Evidently the Germans have discovered our position and have come to bombard us, and they also have become aware of the fact that we have no guns with which to reach them. "Sure enough, the beasts are coming directly toward us, but we all remain standing where we are. Why run: What's the use? All we can do is tc separate, so that the bombs when they do fall do not fall among large groups "The machines are directly over us now, and we can hear the noise of the motors. Somehow -we feel death hov ering over ub. Some of the men double up, so to speak, and sink to the ground in the natural instinct to pro tect themselves. There is a terrible crash, followed by rocks and stone and earth flying in the air near us. Groans and cries are heard. A bomb has faller in our field kitchen, from which a thick, reddish smoke is risiug. We car distinguish ten men lying on the ground. Five or six are able to get up but the others will never rise again One man had his head crushed and another's chest was stove in. "High above us fly in the blue skj the two German aviators, going oi their way undisturbed." that purpose, particularly irom tne Champagne and the Argonne. "A brigade commander tells me that they are convinced the allies eventually eventual-ly will win, but to make an attack ourselves our-selves would be foolish, as we are not strong enough. This same commander |
