Described Visiting Journalists on Upper Rhine Front Test "Enemies' Friendliness"
German Army, Upper Rhine, Mar. 16, During a two-day tour of the front, German soldiers regaled the six visiting foreign correspondents with stories of the "friendliness" of the Alsatian troops on the French side of the frontier. On a bridge at Wintersdorf they put the "friend-lines" to a test. All of the party, including the six German officers, slipped through the sand-bag barrier to the partially bomb-wrecked bridge in full view of the French soldiers behind the defences at the opposite bridge-head. Nothing happened, but the German officer in charge soon decided it prudent not to tempt fate—and the French—too far and led the party back to cover.
A tall lieutenant accompanying the party offered to try to strike up a conversation with the French. He said they did it often—so he again walked to the bridge and shouted at the top of his voice: "Halle, Poilu!" The Poilus, however, were apparel ly in an uncommunicative mood just then, for there was no reply.
A German soldier on top of a front line bunker then struck up the popular German war tune, "Elika," in an effort to draw some answer from across the river for the benefit of the visitors. Finally four French soldiers were seen moving casually along a hill on the opposite side of the river, apparently unconcerned by the fact that they presented a silhouetted target for German rifles, "Chaque Coup Sera Repondu"
German soldiers along the Upper Rhine said they never fire unless fired upon, which is seldom, This assertion was borne out by a sign printed on a banner which the United Press correspondent saw hoisted over the German front line as a warning to the French on the other side.
"Chaque coup de votre côté sera répondu aussitôt" (Every shot from your side will be immediately an Swered).
At every point along the Rhine frontier visited, the German troops told tales of surreptitious render-vous with German speaking French troops amd manifold exchanges of courtesies. The tall lieutenant said he had slipped across the partially destroyed bridge once in the dead of night to trade a German radio for a French cow. "We delivered the radio," he declared. "The following day the poilus slaughtered the cow. At night the two carried it over to us, They dropped several pieces in the river while balancing their load across on the girders, but we feasted on the remainder." The lieutenant showed the autographs of two poilus with whom he had made the bargain, The host of the party a stern-faced colonel, at one place invited his guests inside a canteen, which a sign over the door called the "Wild West Bar," for a "schnapps" A shack next door turned out to be a lending library containing some 150 volumes just 100 yards back of the front lines,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.