Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1915 — SOLDERS MADE MAD [ARTICLE]

SOLDERS MADE MAD

Become Maniacs in Ceaseless Roar of Guns. Correspondent at the Front Says Experience Indicates Truth of Reports—Shots at Aviator 100 . In Five Minutes. Paris.—'J’he New York Sun’s correspondent with the Foreign Legion sends the following notes from his diary: Monday—Started for rations at 7:30 p. m. and on the way caught up with three officers strolling along slowly. The roadway was narrow and it was very dark through the woods, so that it was impossible to pass them. One of the boys got tired of being kept behind at such a slow pace and. at last broke out with: “H —, I’m not going to stick behind that guy! He’s too blame slow” (only the word was not blame., The officers accompanying the colonel, for it turned out to be our colonel, evidently knew the American language, for they burst out laughing, but the colonel continued his stroll imperturbable.

Tuesday—Up at 3:30 a m. rheumatism in my right arm preventing me from sleeping. Found Joseph Collett, who declared he had not slept a wink all night as a continual bombardment had been going from ten o’clock till three, with a short letup between midnight and one. The French heavy artillery was firing incessantly without any reply from the Germans. It was over in the direction of Reims, he said, and the firing was awful; the flashes of fire were continual. When it ceased about midnight I supposed the Infantry must be charging with the bayonet, but it commenced again as furiously as ever. I am not surprised at the stories about Germans going crazy as they did at Hartmannsweiler Kopf after seeing and hearing this. The papers spoke of German soldiers running round the village, mad, stark mad, driven so by the hellish noise and the destruction. Even the men in reserve underground trenches, feet below the earth, who were to replace the men killed in the trenches, were driven, mad. They could see nothing, but could hear the swish of the shells, the roar of the explosions and the shrieks of those above. Tuesday.—Bouligny has received word that he has been promoted sergeant; unfortunately he will leave our company, being moved to Battalion C, Second Company, Second Section. Tuesday.—Trinkard found a baby cart in the village and wheeled it over to bring the wine when drawing rations. A big success. At 1:45 p. m. the enemy began shell-

ing the road half way between Craonelle and Blanc Sablon wood. As usual they send a couple of small time shells to test the range (they explode in the air), and then some big contact shells which destroy anything they hit and make another big hole in the ground if they miss. The shelling stopped at 2:05 —missing a barn not a hundred yards from me. There was a little volunteer (a new chap) just beside me yesterday who fired his rifle. Up came the corporal of the guard to know why the etcetera he fired. “Oh, I had a cartridge that looked bad so I tried it.” Then tl|e sergeant-major wanted to know why he had fired and he pleaded that he had seen two* rabbits and could not resist to pop at them. This is a real war anecdote, I only wish I could give

you something more lurid, like those I see in the American press. Watched a French aviator being; fired at about 4:45 p. m. Four batteries were at him at the same time, six or seven shells exploding at once. There was still enough light to see the shells explode. The firing was so fast that I counted, and found that more than a hundred shells exploded in five minutes. The aviator flew out of range, but at 5:15 he came back again, and, strange to say, was not fired at. They say that French aeroplanes have a wire attached about two hundred feet long by which the observer on board can flash signals by making the wire spark. Thus officers all the way back can read the signals with powerful glasses. / ; Ji