Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 409
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[Page 409]
smashed in the approach & showed the stairs leading to the dug out below. The "Pill box" itself was untouched & intact.
In this neighbourhood some of the Hun dug outs were 60 feet deep having three floors, the lower ones being for officers, were furnished with beds, carpets, mirrors, stoves, etc just like a mansion. All these luxurious fittings had been taken from the residences in the nearest villages & towns.
Evidence was here very apparent of the Hun predeliction for wanton destruction for every article that cold not be removed or carried away was purposely disfigured or broken such even as childrens dolls & toys, drawing room bronze & other statuettes & articles of artistic merit. Household linen & wearing apparel from the wealthiest class had been uselessly & fiendishly destroyed & needlessly put to uses, when any quantity of better adapted material was available. No! But this would not suit the Huns, sheer wanton destruction appeared conclusively to be their greatest delight. The display of such a wicked spirit with inanimate things created the horrible suspicion of how they would gloatingly tyrannise over any poor weak women who unfortunately fell into their clutches.
One example of their vandalism filled one with disgust. To fall, timber along roads, or forests, may possibly come within the range of military exigency or necessity as likely to afford cover for attackers or the masking of artillery, but destruction for destructions sake is only what is always expected of Huns.
Attached to a large dwelling house of some pretentions to beauty, a pretty little garden about 150 yards long by about 40 or 50 wide entirely enclosed by a brick wall about 12 feet high, was laid out in fancy designed flower beds small lawns, gravel foot paths with