While neutral America,
Observes the European
Conflict – their Parisian
Correspondent, brings news
Of a change in the strategy,
In front line fighting.
In continued desire
For a 'foreign holiday,'
The Kaiser’s troops
Flow into Flanders - their aim:
Capture of the channel ports.
In the corner of Northern France,
Fearsome fights are in place.
Between Rheims and Verdun,
Battle lines are drawn in mud -
These are not marked by
Cavalry troops positions,
Waiting to charge,
But marked by digging down
Earthworks,
Forming a stand off -
Daily done by pick and shovel.
French and German alike,
Have burrowed down,
Into the ground -
Each side claiming their stand.
The determined French,
Will not allow their enemy
To pass a line, drawn out,
By mark of dirty ditches.
Equally the Germans,
With their passage blocked,
Make a stand by equal ditch.
The scenery that is being drawn
Is reported as nothing of its like
Seen before on earth.
A jagged open scar that cuts
Through fields, roads,
Villages and towns alike -
Across a hundred miles of land,
A thousand miles of trenches,
Are rapidly being dug.
In occupation of open plains,
Half a million men, begin
To gather, with machine guns,
Siege batteries and all things
Such an army needs.
A reporter, Mr Barnard,
Of the New York Tribune
Experienced a hike of 3 hours
Circling the town of Rheims,
In ten miles of trenches,
In company of a general
And other staff officers.
Under the General’s orders,
Officers were instructed,
To spread out men,
At 20 meter intervals –
Barnard, General and his officers
In range of enemy rifle fire,
Trekked parallel zig-zag ditches,
Within less than 500 yards
Of German entrenchments –
They could hear the enemy,
Calling out to each other and
See their odd spiked helmets,
Peek above the trench levels.
From 58 days of digging in,
Have been created
Impregnable positions -
In Mr Barnard's visit
Visit, he notes he saw only
A fraction of the line,
Held by just one brigade.
A frontal attack about Rheims,
Would need 100,000 men
Or more -
Possibly sacrificed, without
Any certainty of success.
Mr Barnard, at Vitry le Francois,
Spoke to m’sieur Paillard,
The Mayor of the town.
He explained how the Germans
Had held their community,
For a long 5 days.
In darkness of 10 p.m.
Deaths Head Hussars,
Galloped into the town's streets
Of Vitry le Francois.
These Germans cheered,
To sound their trumpets -
With the moon above them,
Large and white,
For hour on hour, artillery
Cavalry, and infantry,
Endlessly streamed into the town.
In youthful soldierly pride,
A Prussian officer
Had proclaimed, ‘every day for
Five days we have fought
A battle and every day,
Made victory.’
At Vitry Le Francois, this success
Ended - each time a German
Battery was put in place,
French artillery swept them aside.
The mood of the Germans
Rapidly changed from
Good humour to irascibility.
Lines of troops were made,
With fixed bayonets -
Preventing people entering,
Or leaving their town –
Their suspicions on height,
Convinced of people passing
Information to the French,
From Vitry Le Francois.
Next, in Vitry Le Francois,
The priest was stopped
From celebrating mass -
Until they made appeal
To the German General -
The condition given
Was for soldiers of six,
To stand, either side
Of the alter, bayonets fixed.
During those five days,
German wounded flooded
The town, on stretchers,
Ambulances, wagons
And on foot - the hospital,
Church, bank Barracks
And other buildings
were filled to over flow.
1500 church chairs,
Were taken outside,
Into the Place d’Armes.
Here the wounded sat.
Nurses and Doctors
Passed from chair to chair,
Binding their wounds
And giving them first aid.
The church was filled
With mattresses - the chapel
Turned into a medical
Theatre, to carry out operations.
In a move against the Geneva
Convention, the Germans
Hoisted a Red Cross flag,
To the top of the church tower.
Under this, artillery Officers
And staff stood, observing
The battle with field glasses,
And to signal their artillery
Of any French positions.
A habit of the Hun had
Been to plunder - including
Stopping the people in street
To hand over their watches.
No place was sacred.
Silver and gold coins were
Taken from the museum.
A sword of honour,
Worth $1000, was taken
And precious stones
Valued at $6000, gone.
Any safe found, was opened
With all valuables plundered.
For the occupation’s duration,
The priest mayor and Mr Bernanat,
Were held hostage,
In the church presbytery –
The town’s population was told,
If any action was made against any
German, they would be executed.
The floor of the church,
Had been badly stained in blood.
When the Germans were gone,
The fire brigade hosed down
The church, to find grimagery,
In the hotel des Voyageurs -
Where nine dead bodies lay.
On the fifth day,
As the occupiers retreated
Enemy artillery,
Moved through the town.
In order not to alarm
The wounded still there -
Lying in the Place d’Armes -
The German limbers,
And guns, were
Decorated with flowers,
And tree branches -
As if on a victory parade;
to hide any gun damage
From heavy French attacks.
by Jamie Mann.
Inman Barnard,
C., 1914. Trenches in France 1000 Mile Maze – Tribune Correspondent visits
Battle Front at Vitry Le Francois – Town Devastated by the Invaders – Germans
before retreating Hold up Citizens on streets – Mayor describes Retreat. New-York
tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), 15 Nov. 1914. Chronicling
America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress,
[online] 15 Nov. p.8. Col.1-2. Available
online at:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1914-11-15/ed-1/seq-1/ [Accessed:
15th November 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 15 November 2014).
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1914-11-15/ed-1/seq-1/
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered
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