Fighting France

rian in his description of how France fought, when the time

nturies of her tormented history; but skeptical remarks have

to endure. No more thoughtful words have ever been spoken than those of the Japanese, Marshall N

that she knew how to suffer and was able to suff

y-two kilometers and did not sleep for more than two hours at a time. The mobility of the fighting units was such that the commissary department was absolutely unable to supply them with rations. For three days many of them had no bread, no meat, nothing at all! They

t by the exhaustion due to lack of sleep-and sometimes of food-passed all imagining.... Comrades, the commander in chief has asked you to do more than your duty,

eau de Mondement, and five times they were driven back. Their officers were consulting as to the best thing to do; and the men surrounded the officers, begging them w

n the eyes which shattered his optic nerve. He was completely blinded. Nevertheless, he continued to advance, trying to grope his way through the night th

the wounded man, "a shell

nded man, "I am going to carry you on my back. My

ther, the blinded man and

lery officer, his arm was shattered, a few bits of flesh barely holding it fast to his shoulder. My b

wounded man, "but my battery do

helped and it is a waste of time

t the munitions. We Colonials fi

own battery, it was the battery next it, and then the one next to that, which he wanted to supply.... Finally, in the evening, at nig

ay. Couldn't you ha

nant repli

ost a lot of ti

d dying to the south of Verdun, at the

e been entrenched on the left side of the Butte, the French on the right. And day and night for four years there has been an incessant battle over its summit of grenades, bombs and shells; a terrible hand-to-hand

a single tree, bush, or blades of grass on them; they stand out sinister a

scourge of God has p

hey are sown over with the enormous funnels in which the fighters take shelter;

t will never be known. But what is known is that the dead are always there. They form a parapet above which the living fight on. These dead rot in the sunshine and in the rain. In accordance with the wind's being from the east or the west, the frightful odor of all this rotten flesh strikes the Germans or the French. Th

h has not gripped their souls, their courage or their nerves. They are no less confident and merry than the others and, in the evening, when the setting sun adds the purple of its shadows to the red of all the blood that has been shed on the But

s which was encamped in the charnel house. He was a boy twenty years old, who hurried alo

s happy as

ll go to the country to see my mother. But, for the pr

ccursed Butte, I could not repres

m glad to

nd the number of his comp

later I met one of his officers.

lled the day before

de added in

est. The death agony set in at once. As I was trying to do somethin

my boy,

ured th

m glad

d everywhere on the French front-and they are glad to go into all the trenches and

her soul, with all her tenacity. She has fought with all her

hting in this mud, I can find no other means of expression than the words that have already served the Commander in Chief of the French A

the men. We have done nothing; the men have done everything. Our m

wonderful. And I want to w

f arms than that of a young girl, twenty years old, named Marcelle Semer, whose heroic story a F

sufficient force, they retreated, crossing the river and the canal. The enemy immediately pursued. Marcelle Semer, who was following the French troops, had the presence of mind, after the last soldier had crossed the Somme Canal, to open the drawbridge in order to prevent the Germans from crossing it, and to hurl the key to the bridge into the canal i

ts who had hidden in the woods or in cellars. She succored and concealed the soldiers whom wounds or fatigue had prevented from following the main body of troops. She contrived that sixteen of them, dressed as civilia

siding officer, "that you hel

and they are beyond your reach. Now you can do what you want to me. I am an

he very moment when they were about to shoot, the French re?ntered the village and, by a miracle, sh

nd in the columns of the "Journal Officiel." Read, for example, this citation conce

the population in the absence of the mayor and the majority of the members of the town council. In spite of an intense bombardment which par

Mlle. Cheron, merited a citation which

ats, and kept her head in the face of their demands with remarkable calm and decision. When our troops returned, she assumed responsibility for the service and feeding of the cantonment. She personally to

nd fighters of whom the "Journal Officie

aise. Having received a promise from the enemy that they would respect the town in exchange for the care the sisters gave their wounded, she protested to the German commander against the burning of the town with the observatio

e German occupations in 1914, assisted the sisters and remained bravely at her post night a

ose tireless devotion has deserved all praise, has given the most intelligent and enlightened care to numerous wounded men. During the time of the German occupation,

o, in the little village of Houpelines, in the north of the country, deserved this

who had put her valuables and accounts in safe-keeping, gave evidence of the greatest calmness. From the seventeenth on she endured the bombardment. Her office having been damaged severely by the enemy's fire, she took refuge i

es have been worthy of t

the mobilized men. Note these figures. On the first of February, 1916, the civil establishments of war, the munition plants, and the Marine workshops employed 127,792 women. The number has increased, and on the f

y and devotion-the Société de Secours aux Blessés Militaires, the Union des Dames de France, and The Association des Dames Fran?aises. At the war's outbreak the Société de Secours aux Blessés had 375 hospitals with 17,939 beds; today it has 796 hospitals with 67,000 beds and 15,510 graduated nurses, three thousand of whom are employed in military hospitals. On the thirt

of hospital work, 25,000,000 for the Société de Secours aux Blessés alone. From the beg

ours aux Blessés has been granted one cross of the Legion of Honor, 94 Croix de Guerre, 119 Medailles d'Honneur des épidémies. The Association des Dames Fran?aises has won 17 Croix de Guerre and 80 Medai

Barthou telling him the number of women who had risked their liberty, their life, their honor even, to protect in the face of the ferocious enemy the sacred rights of the French wounded. It is fitting

duty as nurses, never forget

r by the Germans for a year in the camp at Holzminden, in which she took the place of the mother

ve put in the service of their country and of humanity, you have but to listen to the declaration of one of them, Mlle. Canton-Baccara, w

een pillaged, a woman's smile ought to console and her voice ought, under all circumstances, to be ready to recall to him that above these sufferin

ighters. They fought, according to Mlle. Canton-Baccara's words, with their heart and with their smile. They fo

prisoner in the hands of the Germans. On the lips of their father there is never the slightest word of complaint; on the lips of the mother there are these admirable words, which the children in the schools will repeat later on.... Madame de Castelnau was in a little village w

ou another blow. But know well that a

nce. She interrupted the priest and, lo

od's will be done. But the mothers of France wou

gh level the words of an old woman, a humble soul, whom the gendarmes found one night c

ready fallen in the war. I have come here to see

endered her military honors and presented arms. The mother

, Vive l

the first to exhort their sons, husbands and brothers to fight to the end. All have the same words of sacr

er written by a humble peasant woman whose heart, after cen

ear

have changed. Did you get my letter? I hope so. I must reassure you about your father the very first thing. He was away only thr

greatest one that has ever been asked of me. However, I keep calm. I tell myself sometim

s, my son, a soldier's honor lies in being on the battle field when the country is in danger. Go, then, my son,

hope to see you again in spite of everything. If that should not happen, say to yourself, my dear boy, when you cl

ter written by two young girls who live in Lorraine, n

Septemb

ar Ed

e twenty-eighth of August. Eugène is badly woun

as gon

that you are brave and wish

refuse you that. Jean won the Legio

eleven who went to war, eight are dead. My

the right to take it away

s are here. Jandon is dead; they have pillaged everything. I have just

We hope to see you again, for somethin

arewell, and may we see

) Your

nce. Think of your brothers a

France. In the newspapers mention had been made of the men disabled by war, and of all the unfortunates who were mutilated, whose limbs had been amput

and, as all mothers are sisters in these trying days, I asked after her men at the front. She told me sadly that she was a poor widow, and that the war had taken away her two sons, her sole means of s

laining. I sought means to console her. This is the

y and proudly consent to marry the poor, injured men and to be not only their hearts but the limbs which will aid them to make

t the men who have a wider audience could stir the hearts of the young women, twenty years of age in France, if t

irit to defend themselves against the grossness and the insults o

ith mud by the Kaiser as he passed by on horseback. He made a ge

r, sir. That mud

Kaiser's sons. The day of his departure he sent for her to thank her for the hospita

, sir. I did not

ed her house wi

o fight on, and will be able to fight to the end. Because the women of France have been all t

ates of the Eternal City. He crossed the Forum without stopping and, in his course, mounted the Hill of Mars. Final

alas!"

as the mistress of the house,

o you bring?

in the battle down there in Umbria,

do not ask that. Have the

ave, Co

death of my sons if my

cient Rome was. Those words thousands of French women have uttered for the last four years, and

need not throw your arms around conquered necks. Our country, women of France, is made up of our homes, our churches, and our fields, and of your beloved faces. Throughout the tragic periods of its history, our country has always been incarnated in your faces, whether they called themselves St. Geneviève or Jeanne d'Arc. And in our building, to personify the cities that are dear to us, we have always taken your bodies, your foreheads, and the folds of your

en, women and children: they will also state that these men, women and children, in spite of the terrible times, their suffe

ill boils, there were, before the war, different parties, cliques, grou

ench Womanhood," M. Louis Barthou has painted the picture

c French families and the most modest citizens. There is no false pride among those in high places nor envy among those lower in the social scale. They wear the same garb, the same cap, with the same cross on their foreheads. For the soldiers there is the same uniform, and when you say uniform you mean equality in devotion, in the risk of life, and in loya

nd calmed their sufferings have, with their delicate hands, so expert in the worst treatments, laid the foundations of a France that is united and fraternal, where envy and hate have no place. All eyes have opened to broader vistas of revealed clearness, to which they have hitherto remained closed through prejudice, or obstinacy. They will have learned that bravery, devotion to the right, loyal and tried disinterestedness, heartfelt and wise knowledge can dwell in the simple soul of the peasant

d the letters written on the eve of their deaths-in that hour when a man, alone, face to face wi

say the s

second lieutenant of the 330th infantry regiment,

ad. They are the children of a chosen people. I am full of gratitude towards our country which has received me and heaped favors upon me. Nothing would be too much to give in payment for that, and for the fact that my little son may always hold his head high and never know, in the reborn France, that torment which has poisoned many hours of our

was killed on the sixth of October, 1915, and who, on the eve of the Champagn

oics and the martyrs of all time. For a moment we are beyond the France that is eternal. France ought to live. France will live. Get ready your loveliest gowns, keep your best smiles to welcome the conquerors in the great war. Pe

s prayer, that of a little Protestant soldier from the Mon

ecrated myself to Thee since my youth, and I hope tha

sired war, but that I have fought to d

e. Thou knowest how greatly I love them all, m

y have done me; I am but a poor man but Thou art th

ughts, was received by a Catholic sister who had cared for him, and

s letter from Captain Cornet-Acquier, that captain to whom his wife wrote, "I would urg

ore each battle. The commanding officer remarked that that was not the pr

t me from making my military arrangements

n I

thing you do. And I find

atholic wrote the evening be

ar Je

l to you your promise.... Comfort my mother. For a week she will have no news. Tell her that when a man is in an attack he can not write to those he loves. He must be content with thinking of them. And if time

h. It was held some yards away from the trenches. If

uty and youth and life. May God guard me to the end. But, Lo

the twenty-five thousand priests who went off at the beginning of the mobilization, three hundred were called military chaplains, the rest were officers, stretcher-bearers, or common sol

ct of granting an absolution; to shed my blood for the Church, for France, for her Allies, for all those who carry in their hearts

ing, a profanation, that, in spite of myself, I have separated and differentiated among them. For dow

in, and in his agony he asked for a crucifix. No priest happened to be on the spot, there was only a Jewish rabbi.

and a rabbi. We often saw the place. On the evening after a frightful battle, they were all three in the c

he bodies of our comrades withou

t asked to what fa

e find out? But can't you

bless them one a

ght of the three men side by side, the Catholic, the Protest

churches are fighting in this hour, forming one great church. Yes, every church and every saint is fighting! These saints belong to all beliefs, some of them to no belief. But one religion has united and s

into dust the little village churches. An infinite cathedral, a cathedral that is invisible and great has risen on high. It is the cathedral