ROMANCE OF A FRENCH TOWN

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 October 1918, Page 1

ROMANCE OF A FRENCH TOWN

i (By Lieutenant K. Ingram). It is ancient liistory now, so one can life tlic curtain and reveal names. I refer to the chcqucred history of Armentieres. Those who knew it in its [ palmier clays will remember it as unique in its conditions of life. It waa rescued from the Hun in 1914 and tlie line settled down near to it, so near indeed that the trenchcs ran througn Houplines, one of its suburbs. Yet tno civilians continued to live there, and existence resumed almost its normal course. In so strange a war was there ever so strange a situation? There were shops open and doing a thriving trade. . One patisserie will especially bo remembered. Estaminets offered their attractions some 2000 yards from the German trenches. Who will forget Lucienne's and the excellent dinner which you could get there any night? Mass was said daily in St. Vaast's. Civilian motor cars and a few tradesmen's carts had to be avoided when army, lorries made their journeys. Children played- games of war within sound of the field-guns. Few of the houses, great or small, were unoccupied. It was necessary to wear your "Sam Brown" on all occasions in those days, for you were within ithc heart of civilisation. The Lys was an attractive bathing place. But you had to don a proper "costume," for there were ladies in all the houses, by its banks: Fifty yards further down was a bridge within machine-gun range of the enemy! And all ithc time the Hun balloons looked down and watched the quiet lite of the little town. There was comparatively little shelling; no one quite seemed to know why, and there'were various odd theories advanced it-o explain it. So Armentieres lived on the threhold of No Man's Land. It lived undisturbed. And then suddenly came the grim awakening. The Hun began to think there would be an offensive against Lille. A slight bombardment was the overture. One night it increased to violent fury. The houses and churches rocked before it. The civilians fled to their cellars. Immediately they had done so, the Hun, guessing this, plastered the place with gas-shells. It was, of course, to the collars first that the gas found its way. There were 000 civiilans gassed that night. The evacuation began. The inhabitants crowded out, many leaving their furniture and all their wordly wealth behind them. Armentieres became a city of the dead. You could -wander down its silent streets and meet not a single human being. A few dogs and cats stayed behind, eagerly searching for food. Everywhere was the evidence of the havoc of war. No military damage was done, for the army had made ■little use of the defences of .the town, in order to respect its peace. There are some people I should have liked to have taken round Armentieres in those times to let them seo what war can really do. It was a living sermon. Occasionally you would see a little cart with a. woman or a man who had returned to take away what furniture remained to them. Often they found their home in ruins. What remained was zealously guarded by the military police. Nothing wa staken or touched.

And now Armentieres had fallen on still more evil days. Tho German is once more in possession. One dayit will regain its former prosperity. The factories and the shops will reopen. The tourist will come to gaze at the battle scenes about which he lias read. There will bo mourners at the little cemetery, where civilian and soldier victims lie side by sde. And some of us will return to pay a visit to the places which we knew under grimmer and stranger conditions.