OCR Text |
Show CLOSING SCENES OF WORLD WAR ARE RECALLED Where Fighting of Famous American Divisions W as Most Effective. "Writing In the Philadelphia Ledger, Corliss Hooven GrIIHs gave the following follow-ing graphic description of war-torn France and Belgium at the close of the contest : "The village of Le Catelet, which Is mostly destroyed, was the scene of the most intense fighting when it was readied by the Twenty-seventh division. divi-sion. To the south through Vaux-Andigny Vaux-Andigny Is the battleground of the Thirtieth. In this sector we saw the tunnel made by the St. Quentin canal, as it runs for more than three miles below the surface of the ground. This tunnel, built by Napoleon, is a very unusual thing. It was employed extensively ex-tensively by the Germans as a safe rest billet, and they fitted up the tunnel tun-nel with commodious quarters, offices, kitchens and even stables. When the structlon work here is further along than it is In France. Yet there still remains re-mains a vast amount to be done. For example, we passed through a great deal of devastation between Ghent and Menln. From Menin on our way to Ypres and crossing the border until we arrived at Lille in France on the journey back, we did not see one tree left standing or one house that had survived the war. For miles and miles, hour upon hour, we rode through a scene of such desolation as It Is Impossible to comprehend. "There is no doubt that the two outstanding out-standing cities of the war were Verdun Ver-dun and Ypres. So much is associated with these two places that their chronicles chron-icles almost embody the story of the war. In them, the hopes and fears and miseries of two nations were bound up. Yet after seeing both, Verdun Impresses Im-presses us as terrible, but glorious ; Ypres as pre-eminently tragic. "We had heard so much of Ypres, reading of the struggle there every day for years, that it seemed as if we ought to know the city when we saw it. On the way, we rode down the famous fa-mous Menin road. Never in all history his-tory has any road been so bathed in blood as this fought over incessantly as It was for four long years. Following Follow-ing It takes one through the heart of the most terrible of the British fighting fight-ing zones, and panoramas of battlefields battle-fields unfold before the eye as mile after mile Is traversed. "We passed through one area where we counted fourteen tanks in the surrounding sur-rounding fields, lying just where they had been put out of action, grim relics of a furious battle. Not even the stumps of trees are left here the devastation is utter, complete. Tragedy at Hooge. "Close upon Ypres we passed through a little cluster of wooden shacks the name of the place was Hooge. It gave me a shiver to see it, for Hooge was one of the deadliest spots of the entire war. It was here that the Hun first used the diabolical invention of liquid fire on July 30, 1915. and the British were literally burned alive. It was also at Hooge during the German at-tnrk at-tnrk thnt the Cnnrwliimt; lnct- mnrotlmn MONUMENT TO TUB DEAD t CHATEAU DU UOlR., Americans captured this part of the canal they took many prisoners here, us the enemy poured out of the entrance en-trance to their underground quarters like rabbits out of a warren. "One route led on through Cambral and Lille into Belgium. After crossing the Belgian frontier we came upon the si".-tors that were fought over by the TkTriy-sevcnth and Ninety-first divisions. divi-sions. Here, as a part of the Sixth l ieiich army, they assisted in driving I'.ic Germans across the Scheldt river. ".'.L-igium is not France, and there is a uoiid of difference in many ways, hi liio lirst place, the houses are all of in! brick instead of stone. And this glws every village a decidedly dusty i.;.,;. ar.mce. The trees along the roads i.ro different, and windmills dot the h i.. '.scape with waving arms. The c-o... -.try, though flat, Is decidedly beau-lh.; beau-lh.; because of the care It receives. Zu crowded, moreover, are conditions i.i Belgium, with houses and villages everywhere, lllllt tlie whole country re-i.Kiids re-i.Kiids one of passing through the suburbs of some large city. Belgian Reconstruction. "Of course, Belgium also has tremendous tre-mendous and pitiful areas where the war has effaced everything; but, as German repurutlons payments have been made to Belgium first, the recon- 7,000 men, a startling percentage of their fighting force, on June 2, 1016. "In this vicinity, where little attempt has been made to cultivate the ground again, there is not one foot of the soil which has not been blown up at some time. Along the roadside we passed many British cemeteries, and these gave the final note of tragedy to it all. "Ypres is so thoroughly ruined that there is very little left to see. The remnants of the once magnificent Cloth hall and cathedral dominate what is left of the town, and are impressive even In their shattered condition. Rebuilding Re-building Is now going forward In Ypres so rapidly that before long much of the devastation will have been removed re-moved ; but it will take many long years to efface the devastation in Ilia hearts of countless thousands wrought by the Germans at Ypres. It is Impossible Im-possible to escape a feeling of horror upon entering the city today; and yet there Is Inspiration, too, for Ypres means nothing If not courage and devotion de-votion to duty and sacrifice." VfSr Jrl fc'-f'l 4 |