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CHAPTER VIII
IN THE REAR OF THE FOURTH ARMY
EARLY on September 28th I proceeded to the Hotel
Croix d’Or and a moment later I was once more on
the way towards the front with General von Secken-
dorff and his Adjutant. Our way lay in a south-south-westerly
direction and followed roughly the Ardenne Canal, which we
crossed two or three times. Our first goal was the town of
Vouziers. Railway communication exists up to this point,
but numerous transport columns, nevertheless, make use of
the paved high road. A road on the lines of communi-
cation is always animated. The roads in the rear of the 4th
Army resemble in all respects those I had seen before in the
rear of the 5th. In fact, it was only the setting of the picture
that seemed different. We passed a number of inviting-look-
ing bivouacs, in some of which smoke was still curling from
the cooking trench, by the fire of which the men of the trans-
port columns were preparing their breakfast. In the avenue
of chestnut and maple trees lining the road, which were
already turning yellow, marching troops and transport
columns of all kinds, supply and ammunition wagons, motor-
ambulances and long rows of old-fashioned yellow mail-vans,
filled with field-post mails intended for Germany, via Treves
—
where the first sorting takes place—succeed each other in
motley procession. The indispensable " Field Gendarmes
"
(Military Police Patrols) in their green uniforms, with helmets
and bright badges, ride backwards and forwards on their road
sections to see that all is in order. There lies a horse which
has broken down, worn out ! A merciful bullet has just put an
end to his suffering, and he is being dragged aside ; a stream
of blood is trickling from his nostrils, staining the road-dust
red.
It is a very pretty landscape that unrolls its undulating
outlines on either side of the colonnade of ancient trees.
L 145
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