“It is impossible to say or to describe what one feels at such a moment.  I believe one is in a state of temporary madness, of perfect rage.  It is terrible, and if we could see ourselves in such a state I feel sure we would shrink with horror.

“In a few minutes the field was covered with dead and wounded men, almost all of them Germans, and our hands and bayonets were dripping with blood.  I felt hot spurts of blood in my face, of other men’s blood, and as I paused to wipe them off, I saw a narrow stream of blood running along the barrel of my rifle.

“Such was the beginning of a summer day.”

SCENES ON THE BATTLEFIELD

Writing from Sezanne a few days after the battle of the Marne a visitor to the battlefield described the conditions at that time as follows: 

“The territory over which the battle of the Marne was fought is now a picture of devastation, abomination and death almost too awful to describe.

“Many sons of the fatherland are sleeping their last sleep in the open fields and in ditches where they fell or under hedges where they crawled after being caught by a rifle bullet or piece of shell, or where they sought shelter from the mad rush of the franc-tireurs, who have not lost their natural dexterity with the knife and who at close quarters frequently throw away their rifles and fight hand to hand.

“The German prisoners are being used on the battlefield in searching for and burying their dead comrades.  Over the greater part of the huge battlefield there have been buried at least those who died in open trenches on the plateaus or on the high roads.  The extensive forest area, however, has hardly been searched for bodies, although hundreds of both French and Germans must have sought refuge and died there.  The difficulty of finding bodies is considerable on account of the undergrowth.

“Long lines of newly broken brown earth mark the graves of the victims.  Some of these burial trenches are 150 yards long.  The dead are placed shoulder to shoulder and often in layers.  This gives some idea of the slaughter that took place in this battle.

“The peasants, who are rapidly coming back to the scene, are marking the grave trenches with crosses and planting flowers above or placing on them simple bouquets of dahlias, sunflowers and roses.

FOUGHT ON BEAUTIFUL CHATEAU LAWNS

“Some of the hottest fighting of the prolonged battle took place around the beautiful chateau of Mondement, on a hill six miles east of Sezanne.  This relic of the architectural art of Louis XIV occupied a position which both sides regarded as strategically important.

“To the east it looked down into a great declivity in the shape of an immense Greek lamp, with the concealed marshes of St. Sond at the bottom.  Beyond are the downs and heaths of Epernay, Rheims and Champagne, while the heights of Argonne stand out boldly in the distance.  To the west is a rich agricultural country.