The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, August 22, 1918, Page 3, Image 3
A CHAMBER OF HORRORS.
Strange Story of Famous Dead Man's
Hill.
The Charleston Sunday News prints
below one of the strangest stories of
the war, which is now published, we
believe, for the first time. Its authenticity
is beyond question. The
writer is a French colonel who, with
bis four sons, has been in the thick
of the fighting on the western front
from the very beginning of the war.
The letter was written to his cousin,
an American woman, well known in
Charleston, who for a number of
years has lived in France. It was
forwarded by her to a friend in
' * ? 1 ? x 3 li. f
Charleston, wno nas irausiaieu. n j.ui
the Sunday News.
The letter follows:
May 26th,' 1918.
My Dear A
- What I am about to tell you surpasses
in horror anything that this
war, so fertile in the production of
terrible things, has yet produced.
You remember that on the 16th of
March, 1916, I had arrested the offensive
of the Boches on the Morthomme,
which from that date was definitely
broken. For three months
they have steadily gained slightly in
terrain, but at a terrific cost in men.
Finally, after July, 1916, they had
cliuimeu Willi gicaici Uiinv-uii: ? j/usition
before Verdun. /
In order to hold Morthamme they
excavated under the mountain an
enormous tunnel, in which were
stored quantities of food and
munitions, as well as ,houses,
infirmaries, hospitals, etc., the
whole length intersected by a
railroad and lighted by electricity.
Here they lived, using the
tunnel as a passage by which they
could reach their front lines'Without
K encountering the danger of our guns.
.But they reckoned without their
host. ,
During nearly a year they enjoyed
peace, if one can so speak of their
subterranean labor, but in August,
1917, I was sent again to this same
region, with other officers and some
cannon of a new style that were ca,
pable of good work.
It was an interesting thing that we
who had been on so many other
points at the front, notable at Noyon
and St. Quentin, should have been
detailed to beg the Boches to retire
from a situation in which they were
so comfortable installed. I need not
tell you with what delight we undertha
miasinn?remftmber. only.
WVA VU<9 ? ? ? , _ w ,
that on the 20th of August, 1917,
and during the days following, we
achieved a complete victory, took
10,000 prisoners and recovered all
the Boches had taken so long to conquer
in 1916. That was nine months
ago and again I find myself in the
same region.
A .Strange Story.
There is a rumor among the poilus
whom I encounter that among the
tunnels abandoned by the Boches in
1917, there are certain parts which
have never been penetrated because
they can be entered only by going in
front of our lines, in the zone called
by the English "No Man's Land."
They say also that the Boches who
* were killed in August, X191T, still
,remain in these sections to which the
enemy has never been able to effect
an entrance, as the slightest movement
in that direction is stopped by
a rain of bullets.
I decided to clear up this mystery
fd to visit these tunnels myself. It
is necessary to start at night and
arrive before dawn that our passage
might not be intercepted by the
Rrwhec Wp urerp aroused. therefore.
shortly after midnight and reached
Mortomme after a long ride by automobile
until we reached a point so
encumbered by bomb holes an$ wire
that we were obliged to finish the
jSurnev on foot. The night was dark
and one had to be guided by instinct
and by the slight declivities of the
ground. There were three of us who
had the physical strength and the
determination to accomplish our object,
but our way was strewn with
difficulties. Each misstep threw us
into a shell hole or into a nest of
barbed wire.
A Perilious Adventure.
0
We walked in this way for two
hours, fearing often tl^at we had lost
our-way and that we should fail to
accomplish our mission. Fortunately
it was the Boches themselves who
aided us by sending up innumerable
colored lights, which thoroughly illuminated
their own lines, showing
? us what to avoid as well as the direction
which we should take. In a
quarter of an hour we reached the
mouth of the tunnel, through which
we entered, and after a descent of
forty meters reached a great tunnel,
through no man's land and entered
one kilometer only to find the end
closed. One of our shells had burst
and completely demolished this sector
of the tunnel, killing hundreds of
Boches.
Further progress was impossible.
We must retrace our steps, pass
through No Man's Land and enter the
(Continued on page 7, column 1)
i-4
Foolish Rejection.
Jane Willis?Why did the enlisting
I officer turn Charlie downr
Marie Gillis?On account of his !
\
eyes. i
Jane Willis?Why, I think he has
beautiful eyes, don't you??Judge.
What Wi
SAPRIC
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three pure f:
Loganberry.
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