HOW THEY LIVE AND HOW THEY DIE,
TAVANNES TUNNEL.
March 15, 1916.
Tavannes Tunnel, everyone will tell you, leaves a memory of hell. It constitutes a natural shelter for troops in reserve in the sector of Vaux. The enemy bombarded the extremities of the Tunnel with gas shell and those of a large caliber——
During the long months we had dead piled up at the entrance to these villainous holes, because access was had by means of two passageways, opening to the sky, with each side of the rocky walls very abrupt——
When shells burst in this limited space, it was impossible to get under cover and the corpses of our dead accumulated at the two outlets of the Tunnel!
Those who met in Tavannes Tunnel must have hated the spot. They groped around blindly awaiting anything!
At times, I believed myself that I would be one of these kind of bugs, black and stinking, that one crushed under foot!
One day the moment arrived to send re-inforcements to a place very near there. There was nothing to say but get going immediately! A sergeant took command of the little column——
"Forward, mes enfants!"