THE CHARNEL HOUSE

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 30, 25 July 1923, Page 10

THE CHARNEL HOUSE

Messioes,: June 1917 :. By HENRY RUFFIN and ANDRE TUDESQ j in "Brother Tommy' ■Through.a fog of yellow dust and golden "puffs of smoke, which spell the . revenge that the enemy , shells and shrapnel we.r© seeking, I have just once aga'„ crossed the # el( i °* battle in order to reach Messines. The pulverised ridge, the furrowed marshes, tho little Flemish town which stands reduced to four bits of wall and. a fwv columns of its church, all this journey through Hell which 1" have made under fuiious bombardment designed-to paralyse the work of con -solid ati on which the victors are carrying out, leaves mc a prey to ih 3 most painful emotion, but with my memory surcharged with other terrors. Through the double rjaggededgefl parallel tra&k which "the Tanks bad opened like boles in the entanglements, in the wake of the galloping mules which were bringing up the long ra_foo\v-hued -highexplosive shells, I jsetraced the path of the al.tfi.ck, that I mjght see once more, by th. c broad light of "day, with their dead nnu tMk- rubbish heaps, those mines whick formed the hideous principal featcie of th's battle.

. . . Let the s-ensitive_ reader pass on. Death was never more hatefully triumphant. ... 1 have been stumbling through & Ites of charnel-house.

A machine-gtSE officer on. observation duty upori th.c ridge, in order to watch and jSß*£ort the German gasrshclis whi'Sfe explode noiselessly, told in."- the. story of these mine?.

Almost a ago inquiry was made in the coal.minus of Newcastle and Cardiff for 200 miners who should be particularly skilful at tunnelling and blasting. It took them almost six rnorrifes to construct a newunderground GrP-tein of tunnels which extended for €3» and a, quarter nvbm right up to flfee- slope of the ridge. They mad© Brte&to*— pfcc&ets ®E4sssr tho isin ebmsn ' cfrmer.i-Hs*di forts, anrcosS' 1&os«? wlvk_ tSie «no_.y. had built.

.Tbese t.u!SR«_ tn order to be carried forward 2tsd to be dri.v*„ a* least 1&0 yaff_s fro_ the surface. A quadrangular shaft, like th,e wtill of a lift, was tbe» opened, f!ftrea)gth«n<ed, and filled w'thi tremendonss "explosives at .the rate of 25 tons 10 the charge: The electric TOiree s , "which wwe: to carry"' tl«! .fatal spjark to this place tn a second of time, were laid td'werd's tbe end of the winter.

Since January the German troops of'the first line, lived without suspecting it, over a slumbering inferno.

Such was thjG patient work of preparation.. Its Pfesolt, oven "at Sawn upon tbe 7th J_*e, was this convulsion of the earth, .which, vast as some supernatural cataclysm, TURNED THE HILL UPSIDE DOWN/ FILLED THE MARSH. BROUGHT FORTH, IN* PLACE OF A WOOD. POOLS OF WATER GREEN AND RUSTY. AND IN A BREATH CHANGED NOT ONLY THE HISTORY OF T\VO YEARS. BtJT THE WORLD-OLD GEOGRAPHY OF THIS REG lON • The pond s of the marsh sleep now be-tweeh. two benks of earth. The 'ghastly path «hat. I have been following is, in places as springy' as indlarubber.

The mines when they exploded did not, J?s did those at Pozier.es, for}]) in tbe earth those giddy r funnels wriv.k' r;eem.t r> belong to a nigMrn.are. Here .'cubic;? 1 masses of .earth.furiously thrown up have flown in ..'nil directions, havjo cracked in pieces as before ; the . power of .firedamp* ami have then' fallem luiavily upon the trenches,, forte and men. like a brok*>ni - tomb'stpae. Firedamp! word springs to th e lips Rs one. gazes upon, this jumble of burned rubbish, th.est< rocks that the fire has licked, and these cracks in the soil where' lies the only water In tfitis in-di-scribable. scene. This battTefceli of the Ridge is a, Courrieres spread! but under the open tiny.

• You''can. understand that wisereeyer. a mine has exploded, it is a fcbambtea. Terrified rats -were "funi'ing,l>etv/een .the stones, snd along (he borders of the red pools.'' Blue, mail-clad flies were everywher,ei in, swarms.' Thes© creatures, whom instinct warned, alone survive here.

As for the dead men—l have never seen any like these. Some of arena, drowned, lay on their face* iti wate r and. mud, or -were planted, head! downwards, with their tortured! legs, still booted, \ in... "ill© «ir. Others, ..crushed between blocks ,Pf cement, strove* like so many wretched 'Sain*

soifte i_ _a{psr% Tieasgt*, to . stts&J-TS. tho avalanche of- -death.- • Many; cut down or caught by vortices of th© soil, their bodies sucked, in, appeared black, scorched, hideous, their eyes wi'lbout lashes and staring, their mouths full "of calcined "earth. I saw a Feldwebel like • so„e ..caryatide of desk, who, his shoulders under a boulder' of. crjasent, whkvh another stone supported at th© further end, grasped t,h, e empty ; a"r with -twobands that' the force of his effort rendered almost transparent."

"The wind of ihe explosion bad. turafcd back his hair, which he wors long. His neck, swollen horribly as wes his taw, g&'S'-e him the look of •offi-2 loathsome Heresies. A few yards away tv*o soldiers Jay gripping: one- aH#t&er, as ifi tfefey on« lump Of human fiesfc. They must have b>3sa burled away together wit is enormous foroe. for .stretched out and confounded the one with ihe other. THEY LAY KNOTTED TOGETHER UPON THE GROUND. But' the- yen.Bger of the two, hs&rdly H-eventee-R years "old. beardless and. fresh-faced, wore a sinister grin. The fire _ad devonr^ 1 . the grey cftge which he bad pur on a gains.;, tbe cold, night, and, capricious as it -'f? by nature, fead drawn ■& line round h's body, and itself by .engraving !b e flesh of bis thighs, with a regular hatomng, es if it bed been dene with :i comb. Twelve- hours- after the *tlaek certain muffled sounds, wb'iibE wha-t remained of the edg-out. attract ed ihe. attention e£ some men ,'sf tbe Army S-r-rvlee Corps, who reporl.ed tt'-e eircumrdnnc-.'S to tne brigade's headquarters. An , opening was quickly made. At this moment the, battlefield recalled even mow '••Trcmsly' than before., tSx.shc.urs which follow upon a eedrery di»a«ter. Four wounded German obi errs were s-,-tit-ling to rteali in ill are. They were

saved. Since then upon the great Ridge, between i.he rhsll bursts, tb« men of tho relieving troevps stand listening, throi'sgb the whei'e length of this great Charnel-house lor cries of human' distress, v.-hi eh seem to ectne from beyond the grave.