OCR Text |
Show FRENCH WRITER DESCRIBES HAVOC , Paris, April 21, 6:01 p. m. Gaston Deschamps, -writing in the Temps, givesa vivid description of his visit to the Verdun front, from which he ;, lias just returned. The account fol- lows: ' The vast battlefield -was veiled in .' a sleepy rain, (but Verdun, Douamont ' and Le Mort Homme "was vaguely outlined in the distance. Verdun, J wounded but still upright, stood like ; a sentinel guarding the entrance of ' the valley above the blackened ruins of houses, -while tho towers of the cathedral ca-thedral rose like two outstretched '- arms in protest against the misery and ,' desolation about them. The citadel still stands unscathed. Villages are now" abandoned and be- ; come military headquarters, where the presence of civilians is Impossible. The ' -whole aspect of tho vast panorama is one of intense melancholy. At Intervals Inter-vals incendiary bombs burst among Ithe ruins, throwing up great clouds of black smoke and debris. From time to time fires -were started by bambs and here and there village ' houses -were seen blazing through the mists, but amid all' this scene of fire I and explosion no human being could I be seen anywhere, as it was hidden I monsters of steel which far away were working their terrible destruction The absence of human activity added to i the supreme sadness. One could see the ancient mins of 1 the old Roman camp in this vicinity, where the Romans resisted the German Ger-man Invaders, even Rue Mazel, the main thoroughfare of Verdun, being an ancient Roman road. nn |