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Show SCENES OF HORROR ON SOMI FRONT Trenches Are Pictures of Ghastlines8, Where the Dead Are Unburied. FROM THE STAFF CORRESPONDENT CORRESPOND-ENT OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. J BRITISH HEADQUARTERS IN FRANCE, March 28, via London. 8:10 p. m Now that the desperate episodes in the war. known in history as the battles of the Somme, have been definitely defi-nitely ended by the German n treat from Arras to the Alsne. it has been possible more leisurely to investigate the conditions which existed along the German front just prior to the back v.i i.i wing to the so-called Hinden-i tin ru line. When the retreat first began, more; than a month ago, the British swept I over some old Somme positions held I by the Germans, and even the most hurried glimpse of the evacuated trenches indicated how untenable they had become, and why it was decided to run no more risks of nnother allied offensive in this sector. Five miles of slogging along the old German lines in the vicinity of Bapaume today revealed re-vealed a picture of ghastllness which may never be seen again in this or any other war. The front line was a long, open, dilapidated, crumbling grave, which disappeared in mud at times, but could be picked up further on by means of the bodies that marked the way. Scenes of Horror. One realized with a shudder how the men doomed to live in these trenches had been plagued by their own dead. Such a ceremony as decent burial had been wholly out of the question, and there was no means of conveying the bodies to the rear. It had been like passing through a fiery rain from I hades to bring up food and water to the living. So, the dead had simply I been tossed out of the trenches, only to be blown back again by an explod-j ing shell Sometimes they came back in fragments, for there were arras, legs, feet and hands everywhere. Occasionally graves had been dug in I the sides of the trench itself, but the dead could not rest there. At frequent fre-quent intervals the Inevitable skeleton! hands and feet protruded from the trench walls. Grim sights this war has had for the men who passed up and down these trenches during the long and bitter nights of winter. What the Guns Did. It has been an enthralling thing to stand by the British Runs in the last three or four months and wonder what was the meaning of all their continu ous roar There was no set battle in progress and the gunners said It was merely the "daily hate" going on to keep Fritz unhappy. The hideous revelations rev-elations of the German trenches, however, how-ever, give the .gruesome answer to what the guns were doing. In some places there were veritable mangled masses of what were once human beings. be-ings. Neither by day nor by night had Hie Germans rest. Their trusted barbed wire, in which they always place such great reliance, had been swept completely away over thousands of yards, and they dared not venture out to repair It. Ail trace of communication trenches leading to the front lines were wiped out, and it has been necessary to bring up supplies and relief at night over a country blown into endless shell holes, many of which were filled to such a depth with water that men were drowned in them. White bits of broad tape could be seen here and there attached at-tached to the iron posts. These were for the purpose of guiding the men up to the front line. Fields of Death. These pathways over the fields of death also were strewn with trag-ments trag-ments of human bodies. Some of the Ndead had the look of mummies. One of the fallen soldiers had his right arm thrown over his rifle, as if his last impulse was to protect his weapon of defense. But there was no defense against the constant shelling. Some pieces of metal thrown about bj the high explosive shells must hae weighed at least ten pounds, the result re-sult of hittine a man with a ten pound bullet, can easily be imagined. At one point in the trenches was the lower half of a German officer, identified by the boots and leggings he wore. His legs were crosspd tailor fashion. Trench helmets of heavy steel had great holes torn In them. The front line, of course, was seamed with the inevitable deep German dugouts, dug-outs, but even these had not been immune. im-mune. There were hundreds of direct hits on top of them, which must have made life intensely miserable and hazardous haz-ardous within Around the famous Butte de W arlrn-court arlrn-court the German trenches have en tirely disappeared. The entire fury of the Somme fighting once swirled about this somewhat, insignificant mound ! powdered chalk, Just off of Bapaunv road, which Is generally believed have been a prehistoric tomb. The butte now marks the death place not only of one supposedly distinguished prehistoric man, but thousands of young warriors. The geographical paltriness of the Butte de Warlencourt really emphasizes empha-sizes the wonderful importance of any-high any-high bit of giound in stationary warfare war-fare The Somme battlefields today appear ap-pear like some great refuse dump. Litter Lit-ter is strewn everywhere. The evacuated evac-uated German back area reminds one strikingly of the scenes around a deserted de-serted mining camp in which the gold veins have given out. oo |