iring lines on
the Aisne when the great battle had raged continuously for five weeks,
wrote as follows on October 21st of the horrors he had witnessed:

"Between the lines of battle there is a narrow strip, varying from
seventy yards to a quarter of a mile, which is a neutral valley of
death. Neither side is able to cross that strip without being crumpled
by fire against which no body of men can stand. The Germans have
attempted to break through the British and French forces hundreds of
times but have been compelled to withdraw, and always with severe
losses.

"A number of small towns are distributed in this narrow strip, the most
important being Craonne. The Germans and French have reoccupied it six
times and each in turn has been driven out. The streets of Craonne are
littered with the dead of both armies. The houses, nearly all of which
have been demolished by exploding shells, are also full of bodies of men
who crawled into them to get out of the withering fire and have there
died. Many of these men died of sheer exhaustion and starvation while
the battle raged day after day.

"Both armies have apparently abandoned the struggle to hold Craonne
permanently, and it is now literally a city of the dead.

"It is a typical French village of ancient stone structures; the tiny
houses all have, or had, gables and tiled roofs. These have mostly
been broken by shell fire. Under the shelter of its buildings both the
Germans and French have been able at times to rescue their wounded.

"This is more than can be said of the strip of death between the battle
lines. There the wounded lie and the dead go unburied, while the
opposing forces direct their merciless fire a few feet above the field
of suffering and carnage. I did not know until I looked upon the horrors
of Craonne that such conditions could exist in modern warfare.

"I thought that frequent truces would be negotiated to give the opposing
armies an opportunity to collect their wounded and bury their dead. I
had an idea that the Red Cross had made war less terrible. The world
thinks so yet, perhaps, but the conditions along the Aisne do not
justify that belief. If a man is wounded in that strip between the lines
he never gets back alive unless he is within a short distance of his own
lines or is protected from the enemy's fire by the lay of the land.

"This protracted and momentous battle, which raged day and night for
so many weeks, became a continuous nightmare to