European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 4, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars stripes 1945 scorched were Trie heinous business of the routed German forces driven across the bloodstained soil of in a blaming March of defeat they left behind them broken farms and made their innocent by Jack Cal Debi Iva week staff writer with the French first traffic moves Over this ice encrusted Road leading into the City of toward the front rumble big trucks Laden troops and equip in the opposite direction plod elderly men and Young women and out All showing the miseries of modern some pushed carts and baby carriages bulging with clothing and  household in the snowy Fields and Hills Landing the twisting the puzzles of Nai camouflaged guns Church was full of explosives spurt fire and belch oct Here no one left m a Shell lands precariously former summer resort close to the an enemy recon m the Vosges was a com  Buelow Unity of persons before the hanging Clouds make its flight Ungermann evacuated the now antiaircraft guns go into is a Hulla ghost the Craft makes a Hasty a few blackened Walls still Retreat do e is now the pitiful procession of civilians the germans burned the town moves slowly occasionally a nouse setting torches child stares wild eyed As a Shell even to outlying farm screams still they move on Over the rutted the cutting whipping ravaged by fire the Long list of French villages search the Village of the grievance against on the main thoroughfare diary the villages Popula named Rue plaque Dedi Tion was rounded up 600 men rated in 1921 by a delegation of the were women and children american legion commemorates the were transferred to the Church of towns naming of the new that Village the Church burst the weather beaten Bronze plaque into flames and exploded the is on the Side of the building in which the mapmakers Only the blackened Brick Walls now a White haired old Man was dig Ging through the debris of his fire gutted cottage a Hundred feet up the a Pushcart stood near him and in it the elderly villager carefully Laid bits of por the nauseating odor of Gunpowder Laid waste by the retreating huns in their includes the historic town of Saint this is the most cruel part of die Many historians remarked a Young French Lieut the name America was the Nant standing alongside a 6 x 6 truck town was the worlds map making which had halted while its of Center in the sixteenth cup ants warmed themselves around when the cartographers came to a Small Bonfire a Short distance identifying on their maps the re from the cent discovered continent across the historians they no one is left first considered names like land the germans Are they Columbus and the new Burn the villages before abandoning before hitting on the name Amer them to our forces and Force the in Honor of Americus Vespucci civilians on to the these whom credited with discover people have no place to they ins the new can do is Hope some merciful Vil it is virtually deserted lagers further Back from the front Mosic its former occupants will give them temporary ther in concentration charred ruins of numerous Vil Camps or drafted into labor and Lages Blacken the Broad French military units inside Germany first army Many times the nearly every House has been ravage civilians have been ased by charred and broken at a Village in Central bits of and the penned diary of a other debris litter the Interior of German general carried when he the destroyed Snow now was captured recently relates the blankets the Community i sent an expeditionary Force to excerpts from hitlers Mem kampf the first time the elate achieves a lofty goal Law and laying a peace Ful pre serving and advancing the highest today i am guided Only by the sober realization that lost territories Are not won Back by Sharp parliamentary Bigmouth and their glib Ness of but by a Sharp and in other by a bloody Victory is obtained through sacrifice the coming generations will not condemn the More Brilliant the resultant Suc the better they i will appreciate the dire i traits presumably of his family and other personal items he proceeded to dig silently from the he glanced up and hobbled Over to Ward the was peering from the window of my Home he pointing in the direction from which he had been when two German soldiers ran Over to this i  see them very Well from where i but in a few minutes i saw smoke Curling from the windows and minutes later flames lit up the whole guess the germans had a special grievance against the United this the first to be set was the one in which you got the name America Long time they then proceeded to set afire other buildings and houses with incendiary gasoline and French troops at that time were still several Miles outside the the germans were plenty jittery and beat it out of town As soon As they had set the whole place a Little was saved want much the French soldiers could do when they got fire had a pretty Good but they did manage to save a few of the the old stooped probably As much from the cares of War As from old said he had been living alone and that most of his possessions had either been taken by the germans or destroyed by i had a Banjo some american tourists gave me shortly after the last the villager went and i got to play it quite there were times when i did get a Little too Back in june i had the bbl on the Low so the germans on the Street  hear listened to their programs All Dur ing the i heard that the allies had invaded i was overjoyed and i got out my Banjo to sort of yanks Are funny i never knew that too but that Day it came easy and i was plunking away with Joy when i heard the telltale sound of Ger Man boots clamping up the stairs leading to my front i barely had time to switch to a German Ballad when the door flew open and a German Soldier demanded Why i was playing an american i looked As surprised As i could and asked him if he  recognize the German he looked at me mumbled some thing about a warning and then strode out of the the door behind when i Wai sure he had i struck of Over there again and Sang the words the yanks Are coming just As loud As i the Banjo is somewhere in those he added As he started Back toward his the Alsace Region has Long been without its younger of them were forced to join the Man army when the nazis took they Are used mostly Tat jobs far Back from the ing loading 1 As one French officer if the germans know Only too Well they set off for our first Chance they in a Village a few Miles from Bel a Middle aged woman busily polished glasses in her tiny most of the civilians had left the Village and customers were very the woman still kept open dear my she pointing to Ward a picture of a youth in civil Ian clothes which stood on us mantel near the he was Siiss 21 when the germans took him he was just a he was frightened when he knew the was to be put in the German just before he left he mama in afraid  Send me to the russian front if they Dot i shall kill if you should receive a letter from me with a drawing of a youll know in to be sent the woman fumbled in the pocket of her apron and withdrew crumpled i got this letter from my Kcf yesterday she then held the letter out for me to it was a Brief Natif like any son in service would or Fri to his Mother and it closed wet of ton fils Cheri your Darling son beneath the scrawled signature was the crude sketch of a charred ruins of numerous villages Blacken the Broad French 1st army front germans burned the town House by House today it is deserted nearly every House has been ravaged debris litters the Interior of the destroyed