Here we found groups of old men and boys burying dead men and horses, whose bodies were already beginning to be a menace to health.  The weather here has been exceptionally hot, and the countryside is bathed in blazing sunshine.  Further on were a number of German soldiers beating about in the standing crops on both sides of the road, searching for dead and wounded.  They said many of the wounded had crawled in among the wheat to escape being trodden upon by the troops marching along the road, and also to gain relief from the heat.

On the outskirts of another large village we saw a garden bounded by a thick hedge, behind which a company of French infantry had taken their stand against the advancing German troops.  Among the crushed flowers there were still lying fragments of French soldiers’ equipments, two French caps stained with blood and three torn French tunics, likewise [Transcriber:  original ‘liewise’] dyed red.  The walls of the cottage bore marks of rifle bullets, and the roof was partially burned.

Passing through the villages we saw on all sides terrible signs of the devastation of war—­houses burned, uncut grain trodden down and rendered useless, gardens trampled under foot; everywhere ruin and distress.

At a small village locally known as Napoleon’s Island we found the railway station demolished and the line of trucks the French had used as a barricade.  These trucks had been almost shot to pieces, and many were stained with blood.  Outside the station the small restaurant roof had been shot away; the windows were smashed, and much furniture had been destroyed.  Nevertheless the proprietor had rearranged his damaged premises as well as possible and was serving customers as if nothing had happened.

Just outside this village there are large common graves in which French and German soldiers lie buried together in their uniforms.  Large mounds mark these sites.  Here again the villagers have placed roughly hewn crosses.

Not far from Huningen we met an intelligent Alsatian peasant who remembered the war of 1870 and had witnessed some engagements in the last few days.  Here is his account of what he saw: 

“The bravery on both sides was amazing.  The effects of artillery fire are terrific.  The shells burst, and where you formerly saw a body of soldiers you see a heap of corpses or a number of figures writhing on the ground, torn and mutilated by the fragments of the shell.  Those who are unhurt scatter for the moment, but quickly regain their composure and take up their positions in the fighting line as if nothing had happened.  The effects of other weapons are as bad.  It seems remarkable that soldiers can see the destruction worked all around them, yet can control their nerves sufficiently to continue fighting.

“I remember the battles of 1870, in five or six of which I fought myself, but they bear no comparison with the battles of 1914.  War forty-four years ago was child’s play compared with war at the present time.”