. Vive la France! . t over and the dust was stillrising from the shattered houses. Twelve38-centimetre shells had landed in the very-heart of the little town, sending a score ormore of its inhabitants, men, women, andchildren, to the hospital and a like number tothe cemetery. A few hours before Bergues had been asquaint and peaceful and contented a town offive thousand people as you could have foundin France. Because of its quaint and simplecharm touring motorists used to go out oftheir way to see it. It is fortified in theorybut not in fact, for its moss-grown ramparts,which date from the Cru
. Vive la France! . t over and the dust was stillrising from the shattered houses. Twelve38-centimetre shells had landed in the very-heart of the little town, sending a score ormore of its inhabitants, men, women, andchildren, to the hospital and a like number tothe cemetery. A few hours before Bergues had been asquaint and peaceful and contented a town offive thousand people as you could have foundin France. Because of its quaint and simplecharm touring motorists used to go out oftheir way to see it. It is fortified in theorybut not in fact, for its moss-grown ramparts,which date from the Crusades, have about asmuch military significance as the Battery inNew York. But the guide-books describe itas a fortified town, and that was all the excusethe Germans needed to turn loose upon itsudden death. To-day that httle town is anempty, broken shell, its streets piled high withthe brick and plaster of its ruined has to see the ruin produced by a 38-centi-metre shell to believe it. If one hits a build-.
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
