A Journey Through France in War Time

by Joseph G. Butler

In a moment, however, the column began to move again and then the captain of the chasseurs waved his hand and the mitralleuses opened on the advancing host. The range was point blank and there was absolutely no protection. The hail of bullets mowed down the Germans and they broke ranks, fleeing back up the hill and out of range.

All was quiet for half an hour and then a detachment of cavalry, evidently ordered to rush the bridge, came down at a gallop, having been formed in the shelter of a road branching off the main highway a short distance from the bridge. They were met by a hail of bullets and nearly all went down before they reached the bridge, while the few who did so fell on it or tumbled, with their horses, into the river.

The whole German force was delayed until a battery could be brought up from the rear and trained on the small building sheltering the chasseurs and their machine guns. For some reason, the gunners could not get the range on this small building, and after firing a few shots in its direction, turned their guns on the magnificent chateau, a short distance down the river. At this point there was a small foot bridge, and the German commander evidently meant to try to rush it. Before doing so, however, he was going to make certain that the Chateau, which commanded it, did not conceal another band of defenders. This seems to be the only explanation for the bombardment of the Chateau, which was one of the finest country homes in France and entirely unoccupied. At any rate, they fired shell after shell at the building. I secured a picture of this which shows the work of the guns.

But, as the French tell the story, no effort was then made to cross the foot bridge below the town. A battery was swung down the hill to the end of the bridge, apparently to shell the defenders from that point. The machine guns barked again and every man with the battery fell. Scores more were killed before it could be withdrawn and the way cleared. Owing to the steep banks it seemed hard for the Germans to locate a battery in an unexposed position, and they considered again. Finally they shelled the Chateau some more and then sent a detachment to take that bridge, expecting to get around in the rear of the chasseurs. A machine gun had been sent to the footbridge in the meantime, and the Germans did not get across it until the ammunition ran out and two hundred of them were killed. When they did cross, the little band at the main bridge, of whom one had been killed and six wounded, retreated to the main army, and then the Germans crossed in force and started to burn the town.

The heroes of the bridge had held the German advance guard, numbering 12,000 men, from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, and in the meantime the great battle they had expected to win had been fought and lost.

Naturally the Germans were angry, and apparently they vented their spleen upon the village. The great Chateau, its pride and chief attraction, had been destroyed, but the conquerors at once begun to burn the little town, evidently determining to reserve only enough to make a place for headquarters for their general. They did burn it, but not so completely as they had intended.

[Illustration: Sister Julie.]

Here is where Sister Julie comes in. Sister Julie is the most popular woman in France as well as the most famous. We heard of her long before we got to Gerbeviller and long after we left, but we were not fortunate enough to meet her, as she was away at the time the Commission reached the town. Although a member of a religious order, she has been decorated with the grand cross of the Legion of Honor—the highest decoration France confers upon her heroes. To pin this on her habit President Poincaire journeyed all the way from Paris with his suite, and now Sister Julie will not wear it. She says that religeuse do not wear decorations—they are doing the work of the Lord.

In describing Sister Julie and her work the people of Gerbeviller are even more enthusiastic than in recounting the manner in which seventy-five Frenchmen stopped twelve thousand Germans. It seems that when the German forces crossed the bridge and began to burn the houses they met with little resistance until they came to the convent where Sister Julie and her companions had a house filled with wounded, including the wounded chasseurs. The sister met them at the door and defied them to burn her convent. She ordered them off and made a such a show of determination that they went. No, they will tell you, these French people, Sister Julie is not an Amazon. She is a little woman. Her voice is usually mild and sweet and she smiles all the time. But when they tried to burn her temporary hospital, it was different. She scared them off and they did not come back.

Not only that, but she made the Germans carry water and put out the fires they had started in the neighborhood, and made them fill wash tubs with water and leave them in her hall, so they would be handy if more fires threatened.