A Journey Through France in War TimeButler, Joseph G. (Joseph Green)
History
A Journey Through France in War Time
Butler, Joseph G. (Joseph Green)
France -- Description and travel; World War, 1914-1918
We were quartered at the Le Grande Hotel, and could hear the cannons
roaring as we sat at luncheon. We were warned not to go out of the hotel
without a companion. There was a cave underneath with both an inside and
an outside entrance and we were told that in case the shelling was
resumed we should get into this cave. There had been, however, no
shelling for eight days. The town was shelled immediately after the
departure of the Canadian Industrial Commission, which had recently
visited Belfort.
[Illustration: The Lion of Belfort.]
The shutters of the hotel were closed at six P. M. I was taken to my
room by the chambermaid and handed a candle and a box of matches. With
all the lights of the hotel out, the cannon could be heard booming
during the entire night. Belfort is under martial law, or, as it is
called in France, military control. Just before retiring for the night
we were reminded that the city was frequently shelled and that nearly
all the inhabitants slept in the caves, a pleasant thought to go to bed
with. However, strange to say, I had a most excellent night's rest.
No one was permitted outside the hotel unless he had with him a card to
show the police of the town.
Belfort contains numerous monuments. One series of statues is of three
generals who defended Belfort during the three sieges successfully
resisted. Two of these sieges occurred during the time of Napoleon and
one during the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-1871. We walked about in a
body, escorted by a military officer and a number of soldiers. We
visited a large part of the city and at nearly every corner there were
signs showing the entrances to caves and stating the number of persons
each cave would hold--all the way from twenty to seventy. Evidence was
all around of bombs dropped from aeroplanes by the Germans and shells
fired by them from many miles away, there being hundreds of shattered
windows and holes in the sidewalks.
We remained in Belfort two nights. The morning after our departure the
city was bombarded and some fifteen or twenty people killed.
On Friday, October 6th, we left Belfort in the military autos, under
sealed orders, and knew not where we were going. We passed several
squads of German prisoners, among them one very large company. We were
frequently challenged by sentinels in passing, for miles, along the
front of Alsace-Lorraine.
Alsace-Lorraine has had forty-five years of German rule. The elder
people are not Germanized, and it is quite evident that France will not
be satisfied until the whole province has been restored.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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