Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 195, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1915 — IS NIGHT IN HELL [ARTICLE]

IS NIGHT IN HELL

German Writer Describes Visit to Battle Front. Every Instrument of Murder and Destruction in Action —Fearful Conner! Splits the Ears and Rakes the Nerves. Berlin. —The Berliner Morgenpost publishes the following vivid description of the awful battles north of Arras by Dr. Max Osborne, a special war correspondent who had been at the .western front since the beginning of the war: “With four or five other correspondents I had decided to visit our. advanced trenches near Arras. Two officers, a captain and a very young lieutenant, offered to lead us to the outer German positions. They jumped into our car and silently we sped on through the night. “After a while the lights of our auto were extinguished. Not a sign of life was discernible around us as we ran along the road cautiously but swiftly. Then we noticed gray shadows moving through the darkness singly and in groups.

“Suddenly our car stopped and we had to advance afoot over the dusty, rocky road. Great rockets swept up through the darkness, in beautiful curves, bursting high in the air and sending sheaves of fire in all directions. Great white lamps, resembling large moons, lighted up the country for miles around. It seemed as if lighthouses had suddenly been built into the air. These mysterious lamps were light-bombs attached to parachutes which keep them floating between heaven and earth for some time. “A moment later there was fire all around us. The artillery on both sides had commenced its awful work. Earsplitting, infernal noise now accompanied the fantastic fireworks. The dull roar dissolved itself into innumerable sounds and noises. With faint shrieks, like scared little birds, the' French infantry bullets whizzed over our heads, the machine guns rattled, shrapnels exploded with a deafening roar and the great howitzers spit out their charges with a gurgling sound. Every instrument of murder and destruction was in action.

“Covered by earthworks and sandhills we slowly moved along. We were told that about this time of the night the battle was generally becoming less violent, but after we had passed the last houses of a village a veritable hell broke loose. On a hill about fifty yards from us a French shell exploded, and then another one. We tried to reach the nearest shelter, but shells struck on all sides of us, mowing down the trees, tearing great craters into the field and meadow and sending a hail of sand and stones over us as they exploded. “All the devils of hell seemed to have escaped. A fearful concert split our ears and racked our nerves. In inorganic, distorted rhythms and hundreds of discordant sounds the satanic symphony roared over the country, shrieking, howling, grinding, rattling and at times almost laughing. The earth trembled beneath our feet, more terrors to the hellish concert above and around us.

At last we reached the shelter and here, safe as in a box of a theater, we watched the indescribable spectacle. We were as if in a trance, completely carried away by the wild dance Of death before our eyes. Near the bombproof shelter the soldiers moved around with serious, calm faces. The rain of shells and fire seemed to have no terrors for them, as they did not even hasten their steps when they passed a particularly dangerous spot. And a year ago most of them were peaceful citizens and civilians like myself, and my colleagues. What men war has made of them!

“The night of horrors seemed endless, but at last a weak ray of light, which fell into our shelter, and the warbling of a lark told us that morning was near. Still the guns were thundering and roaring, but as the sun slowly began to rise the firing ceased. For a few minutes not a shot was heard and in the pale twilight my overheated brain drew a fanciful picture of a God walking over the land and commanding peace. "The dream was short however. French shells came again tearing through the air, our cannon answered and the small guns chimed in. Within ten mlmttet the battleraged as vio-

lently again, all during the long night. Hell had only taken a breath.”