ON THE CHEMIN DES DAMES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3197, 22 September 1917, Page 8

ON THE CHEMIN DES DAMES

VIVID PIC IIiRE OF GREAT BATTLE GROUND HOW THE FRENCH WON THROUGH C-Mr. Wylia William?, special correspondent in France of the "Philadelphia Public, Ledger," sends to hie paper a vivid picture of the gveat fighting ground on the Aisne battjefront, the "Chemin des Dames"— '"L'lie Way of Ladies."! Yesterday a!: <la\vn (ho I stood on the Chemiii dps Dames. For tho first time in almost three years someone other than the struggling soldiery was able to reach that bloody ridge. It ia the "Way of the Ladies" because it was built by' T/Hiis XV for his daughters, although through grim irony the name must now remain famous for ever Sis the scene of ihe mighty conflict still raging for its final possession. Only a fewyards from me was the spot .where cuce stood the monument of Hurtebise, commemorating the battles of Napoleon. :\o. thing remained of it. Tt was just a spot, pointed out by my officer in that waste of tortured earth" The whole road is Ihe same. It is only a place no different from all that surrounds, and which my officer told me was the Cheniin tied Dames. . ' I crawled forward and down deep into the earth through the great granitecavo known as the "Den of Dragons. I passed out beyond the Cheniin des Dames and crept, slowly, cautiously, into the first-Hne of the Trench Army -not trenches, but shell-holps— vaguely connected by gullies of mud and water. I was the. first correspondent ever to reach them. The first line of German shell-holes was <lirectly <lown the ridge beneath mo. The last of the stars were burning out and tho light of n new day was just beginning to mate things clear. Soldiers lay all about lue-rifles and hand-grenades always ready—but »° sound broke the silence. The artillery was taking ite early morning eleep, which fact alone was responsible for tho permission granted me to get m close to the very hand-grapple of war. The Cheniin des Dames runs -for mi lee along the top of the crest captured by the. Trench. Its possession sives (he French observatories looking down the valley ot the \ilette. Its continued possession by the French makes the Germans Iremble for their future. So the battle is always "oin" on. Every day, almost every hour, at some point or other along the Chenv.n des Dames (he enemy si rives desperately to regain some portion of the old line he held so long. The Roar of the Guns. On this particular evening I was billeted at Army Headquarters far in the rear but was awakened by the sound of the suns. There was a continuous, un«iuline roar that sounded plainly through the night. I feared the trip might bo called off, but on the stroke of 2 ,o clock —the hour set for the start-an orderly came to my cot with « pot of hot coffee slid told me an auto was.waiting, betting into my boots I noticed the bombardment had died <lown. a n<l I went outside into the heavy drizzle, which made me quite happy, because the air was ho heavy that I fell, positively there would be no German gas-altack. Wo went «ome miles in the car with lights brigM. then at. a certain point everything was made dark.. Wo ploughed a.way_ over tinv twisling. new roads leadmtr in tho general direction of the front. We went verv slowly. I could see. though, dare, lines" of troops plodding along Hie roadside going in Ihe sanie direction. Thev were fresh troops, . as we. learned later coins to relieve the men m the front line who had borne the brunt of the attack that night. At 4 o'clock-it was still dark on. account of the heavy wpather-we left the car in a rear post called Moulin Rouge. I could faintlr see n. cluster of wooden shacks through the trees. I was met. by a. French major. It was a gay welcome, habitual to French officers, no matter-what their business jn hand, l commented upon the somewhat ironical name of Hie post—Moulin Rouge. He laughed. , . "Mi," he said, "this is thn hour when Americans always visit the Moulin Rouge." TJ TTe then plunged into a narrow, muddy nath Tunning up a hill through a Wa'k forest, and T after him. Several officers joined the party. They talked of an aftack that evening of Ihe troops already gone ahead to "make relief. _ It'had been n- rather important affair, ho said, but tho French nrtillerv reply was most effective, so that Germans couW not bring iin reserves. .'The attack; therefore, failed. Still, there would V>» their barrage, he opined— slow barrage"-that ought nor, lo impede our way very much. But at that hour on th.it dark path I could nat help thinking that only one shell of ah extremely slow barrasre would be sufficient Jβ finish th» trip if'it landed in the l-iglit' place. In a few minutes we began passing lines of poilns headed for the rear. We could not see clearly, but we understood they were troops just out of the front line. They paid no attention to us, and we seemed to sense, the weariness of their walk as they plodded silently along. There was a" faint light as wo passed among a mass of broken masonry (hat once formed a village. I scarcely noticed the place. I had seen 60 many demolished villages that another one registers no new impressions. Battle-stained Heroos. 1 only remember this village because there ' I s;>w a, small body of these men from the front line resting among the stones. I recognised them to-be men with a start of surprise. They toned eo exactly in colour with the ruin in which they sat that when their figures became visible they looked more like carved high reliefs, such as one sees among the broken masonry of tho Reims Cathedral, than human beings. , They were as motionless its the debris about them. They were covered with dirt and mud from head to foot. Their packs and helmets were rusty with heavy clay; their faces were- gray from fatiguo and lined with grimy, sweaty streaks. They looked at us with unseeing fjes. They had sunk into the dirt of .their resting-place with no inoro interest than a cow lying down in her pasture. Life for them contained only a few simple elements. Now all they wanted was rest. . ... We continued on our path bavond tlio village, where we met another party marching to the rear. At its head was a small detachment of stretcher-bearers. But the. stretchers were rblletl. Tl.ere were no wounded. The sight of those rolled stretchers gave us a thrill ns great ss had that detachment been a band playing martini music. The Germans had indeed fr-iled if these Red Cross men were going bock with stretchers empty. Several of them smiled in greeting as we passed. .But tho men. coming behind were like tcose we had seen among the stones of the village?. They did not smile. Stumbling along in tho" dim light, they looked as forlorn as scarecrows and just jis unkempt. . . . , The glory of fighting and winning had all gone. They were just: a gang of dogtired men, and they did not care n. tang who we were or what. They did not even see us; they stored straight ahead, with eyes so fixed, yet so lifeless, it almost seemed as if they wea-e Wind. They had come from that hell on. the Cheniin des Dames. They had been thero for a prescribed number of days; they had not slept; they had only fought, and fougUt, and fought. Now they were goinp bnck for a day's rest in some prescribed number Then they would return to the Chemin des Dailies or elsewhere, where they would go through the same performanco over ami over again-some of them And they would do it willingly and bravely to" the end. They were soldiers of Trance, fighting for more than men ever fought for before. Wo got our slow barrage as.wo enmo out from tho trees into the open t'csola. tion that now exists everywhere in the immediate neighbourhood ot the line of fire AVo hugged the lower stretches ot tho ridge, which is the Chemin des Dames. Tho Germans were sending over shrapnel, but it fell into the valley at our left, and only occasionally were we forced lo wait \riieu the black clouds of

smoke hung in the sky directly before our path. Wβ gradually crept up the sides 01 tue slope until,"about a third of the way from the top, wo welcomed with, a sign of relief the yawning hole that is the entrance of the Dragon's Den. This vast, winding cavern, one of the scores along the Cliemin des Dames, waa hold by the Germans lnug after the surrounding positions wore captured, Iho I'rencn having only the end where we entored and a few "yards of the tunnel. It is part quarry, part natural grotto, Llg enough to conceal whole T(-gi-rneuts. When the French entered it they merely had to count and bury the dead where they had fallen and count the unresisting prisoners. Wo wandered through it, lighted by candles, it still held the faint, sickly odour of gas. At a Listening Post. We finally reached a listen/impost outside and slumped down into the mud. A soldier there was standing erect. \Ve were all exactly the same colour r-s Hie mud about and the soldier told us it was unite safe to stand .up aud lake a look over the barrier at the valley below. Ho explained casually but in whispers that the Bodies were straight down the slope at our feet. Ho was leaning over the parapet, aiming his rifle as he spoke. He was eo unconcerned, so ordinary, so matter-of-fact, that 1 jumped back startled and amazed as the sound ot the rifle-firo suddenly broke the thread of conversation. "Got au officer that time, he said after n moment, and kept holding the same apparently casual but very carefu aim over the edge. I stepped forward and looked about. The entire valley ot the Ailette stretched away to the distant hills. On the left I could sec movin" Germans through a grove ot trees through my glasses. They seemed no further distant than across an ordin--ii-Y street. The artillery was still sleeping, and they continued to isove unchecked. Over the tiny stream I could see white flagi on what seemed to be bndses \n officer explained they were fake Red Cross flags, hung there by the Germans in the vain hope to avert fire. Several shots rang out along the line and once ■i ball sent in return hissed spileiully overhead. T drew back cautiously. I thought of the four "alerts" sounded in ihe previous twenty-four hours followed l,v ail attack. To be caught there dur-' in* an attack at the top of that deep, nanw shaft leading into the safety- of the Dragons' Den won d be most unIcalthy. There would be too many soldiers coming up that ladder to make room for me to get down. 1 was no longer a neutral correspondent but an Allied one. I looked once more aero;; the waste of mud. As I stepped into the shelter a ;««*?""«$ £ was plain day on the Way ot the Ladies." ___________