LET me say at the outset of this chapter that I do not setup as one professing1 to have any knowledge whatsoever2 of so-called military science. The more I have seen of the carrying-on of the actual business of war, the less able do I seem to be to understand the meanings of the business. For me strategy remains3 a closed book. Even the simplest primary lessons of it, the A B C's of it, continue to impress me as being stupid, but none the less unplumbable mysteries.
The physical aspects of campaigning I can in a way grasp. At least I flatter myself that I can. A man would have to be deaf and dumb and blind not to grasp them, did they reveal themselves before him as they have revealed themselves before me. Indeed, if he preserved only the faculty4 of scent5 unimpaired he might still be able to comprehend the thing, since, as I have said before, war in its com[Pg 295]moner phases is not so much a sight as a great bad smell. As for the rudiments6 of the system which dictates7 the movements of troops in large masses or in small, which sacrifices thousands of men to take a town or hold a river when that town and that river, physically8 considered, appear to be of no consequence whatsoever, those elements I have not been able to sense, even though I studied the matter most diligently9. So after sundry10 months of first-hand observation in one of the theaters of hostilities11, I tell myself that the trade of fighting is a trade to be learned by slow and laborious13 degrees, and even then may be learned with thoroughness only by one who has a natural aptitude14 for it. Either that, or else I am most extraordinarily15 thick-headed, for I own that I am still as complete a greenhorn now as I was at the beginning.
Having made the confession16 which is said to be good for the soul, and which in any event has the merit of blunting in advance the critical judgments17 of the expert, since he must pity my ignorance and my innocence18 even though he quarrel with my conclusions, I now assume the r?le of prophet long enough to venture to say that the day of the modern walled fort is over and done with. I do not presume to speak regarding coast defenses maintained for the purposes of repelling20 attacks or invasions from the sea. I am speaking with regard to land defenses which are assail[Pg 296]able by land forces. I believe in the future great wars—if indeed there are to be any more great wars following after this one—that the nations involved, instead of buttoning their frontiers down with great fortresses21 and ringing their principal cities about with circles of protecting works, will put their trust more and more in transportable cannon22 of a caliber23 and a projecting force greater than any yet built or planned. I make this assertion after viewing the visible results of the operations of the German 42-centimeter guns in Belgium and France, notably24 at Liège in the former country and at Maubeuge in the latter.
Except for purposes of frightening noncombatants the Zeppelins apparently25 have proved of most dubious26 value; nor, barring its value as a scout—a field in which it is of marvelous efficiency—does the a?roplane appear to have been of much consequence in inflicting27 loss upon the enemy. Of the comparatively new devices for waging war, the submarine and the great gun alone seem to have justified28 in any great degree the hopes of their sponsors.
Since I came back out of the war zone I have met persons who questioned the existence of a 42-centimeter gun, they holding it to be a nightmare created out of the German imagination with intent to break the confidence of the enemies of Germany. I did not see a 42-centimeter gun with my own eyes, and personally I doubt whether the Germans had as many of[Pg 297] them as they claimed to have; but I talked with one entirely29 reliable witness, an American consular30 officer, who saw a 42-centimeter gun as it was being transported to the front in the opening week of the war, and with another American, a diplomat31 of high rank, who interviewed a man who saw one of these guns, and who in detailing the conversation to me said the spectator had been literally32 stunned33 by the size and length and the whole terrific contour of the monster. Finally, I know from personal experience that these guns have been employed, and employed with a result that goes past adequate description; but if I hadn't seen the effect of their fire I wouldn't have believed it were true. I wouldn't have believed anything evolved out of the brains of men and put together by the fingers of men could operate with such devilish accuracy to compass such utter destruction. I would have said it was some planetic force, some convulsion of natural forces, and not an agency of human devisement, that turned Fort Loncin inside out, and transformed it within a space of hours from a supposedly impregnable stronghold into a hodgepodge of complete and hideous34 ruination. And what befell Fort Loncin on the hills behind Liège befell Fort Des Sarts outside of Maubeuge, as I have reason to know.
When the first of the 42-centimeters emerged from Essen it took a team of thirty horses to haul it; and with it out of that nest of the[Pg 298] Prussian war eagle came also a force of mechanics and engineers to set it up and aim it and fire it. Here, too, is an interesting fact that I have not seen printed anywhere, though I heard it often enough in Germany: by reason of its bulk the 42-centimeter must be mounted upon a concrete base before it can be used. Heretofore the concrete which was available for this purpose required at least a fortnight of exposure before it was sufficiently35 firm and hardened; but when Fr?ulein Bertha Krupp's engineers escorted the Fr?ulein's newest and most impressive steel masterpiece to the war, they brought along with them the ingredients for a new kind of concrete; and those who claim to have been present on the occasion declare that within forty-eight hours after they had mixed and molded it, it was ready to bear the weight of the guns and withstand the shock of their recoil36.
This having been done, I conceive of the operators as hoisting37 their guns into position, and posting up a set of rules—even in time of war it is impossible to imagine the Germans doing anything of importance without a set of rules to go by—and working out the distance by mathematics, and then turning loose their potential cataclysms38 upon the stubborn forts which opposed their further progress. From the viewpoint of the Germans the consequences to the foe39 must amply have justified the trouble and the cost. For where a 42-centimeter shell[Pg 299] falls it does more than merely alter landscape; almost you might say it alters geography.
In the open field, where he must aim his gun with his own eye and discharge it with his own finger, I take it the Kaiser's private soldier is no great shakes as a marksman. The Germans themselves begrudgingly40 admitted the French excelled them in the use of light artillery41. There was wonderment as well as reluctance42 in this concession43. To them it seemed well-nigh incredible that any nation should be their superiors in any department pertaining44 to the practice of war. They could not bring themselves fully45 to understand it. It remained as much a puzzle to them as the unaccountable obstinacy46 of the English in refusing to be budged47 out of their position by displays of cold steel, or to be shaken by the volleying, bull-like roar of the German charging cry, which at first the Germans counted upon as being almost as efficacious as the bayonet for instilling48 a wholesome49 fear of the German war god into the souls of their foes50.
While giving the Frenchmen credit for knowing how to handle and serve small field-pieces, the Germans nevertheless insisted that their infantry51 fire or their skirmish fire was as deadly as that of the Allies, or even deadlier. This I was not prepared to believe. I do not think the German is a good rifle shot by instinct, as the American often is, and in a lesser52 degree, perhaps, the Englishman is, too. But[Pg 300] where he can work the range out on paper, where he has to do with mechanics instead of a shifting mark, where he can apply to the details of gun firing the exact principles of arithmetic, I am pretty sure the German is as good a gunner as may be found on the Continent of Europe to-day. This may not apply to him at sea, for he has neither the sailor traditions nor the inherited naval53 craftsmanship54 of the English; but judging by what I have seen I am quite certain that with the solid earth beneath him and a set of figures before him and an enemy out of sight of him to be damaged he is in a class all by himself.
A German staff officer, who professed55 to have been present, told me that at Manonvilla—so he spelled the name—a 42-centimeter gun was fired one hundred and forty-seven times from a distance of 14,000 meters at a fort measuring 600 meters in length by 400 meters in breadth—a very small target, indeed, considering the range—and that investigation56 after the capture of the fort showed not a single one of the one hundred and forty-seven shots had been an outright57 miss. Some few, he said, hit the walls or at the bases of the walls, but all the others, he claimed, had bull's-eyed into the fort itself.
Subsequently, on subjecting this tale to the acid test of second thought I was compelled to doubt what the staff officer had said. To begin with, I didn't understand how a 42-[Pg 301]centimeter gun could be fired one hundred and forty-seven times without its wearing out, for I have often heard that the larger the bore of your gun and the heavier the charge of explosives which it carries, the shorter is its period of efficiency. In the second place, it didn't seem possible after being hit one hundred and forty-seven times with 42-centimeter bombs that enough of any fort of whatsoever size would be left to permit of a tallying-up of separate shots. Ten shots properly placed should have razed58 it; twenty more should have blown its leveled remainder to powder and scattered59 the powder.
Be the facts what they may with regard to this case of the fort of Manonvilla—if that be its proper name—I am prepared to speak with the assurance of an eyewitness60 concerning the effect of the German fire upon the defenses of Maubeuge. What I saw at Liège I have described in a previous chapter of this volume. What I saw at Maubeuge was even more convincing testimony61, had I needed it, that the Germans had a 42-centimeter gun, and that, given certain favored conditions, they knew how to handle it effectively.
We spent the better part of a day in two of the forts which were fondly presumed to guard Maubeuge toward the north—Fort Des Sarts and Fort Boussois; but Fort Des Sarts was the one where the 42-centimeter gun gave the first exhibition of its powers upon French soil in[Pg 302] this war, so we went there first. To reach it we ran a matter of seven kilometers through a succession of villages, each with its mutely eloquent62 tale of devastation63 and general smash to tell; each with its group of contemptuously tolerant German soldiers on guard and its handful of natives, striving feebly to piece together the broken and bankrupt fragments of their worldly affairs.
Approaching Des Sarts more nearly we came to a longish stretch of highway, which the French had cleared of visual obstructions64 in anticipation65 of resistance by infantry in the event that the outer ring of defenses gave way before the German bombardment. It had all been labor12 in vain, for the town capitulated after the outposts fell; but it must have been very great labor. Any number of fine elm trees had been felled and their boughs66, stripped now of leaves, stuck up like bare bones. There were holes in the metaled road where misaimed shells had descended67, and in any one of these holes you might have buried a horse. A little gray church stood off by itself upon the plain. It had been homely68 enough to start with. Now with its steeple shorn away and one of its two belfry windows obliterated69 by a straying shot it had a rakish, cock-eyed look to it.
Just beyond where the church was our chauffeur70 halted the car in obedience71 to an order from the staff officer who had been detailed72 by Major von Abercron, commandant[Pg 303] of Maubeuge, to accompany us on this particular excursion. Our guide pointed73 off to the right. "There," he said, "is where we dropped the first of our big ones when we were trying to get the range of the fort. You see our guns were posted at a point between eight and nine kilometers away and at the start we over-shot a trifle. Still to the garrison74 yonder it must have been an unhappy foretaste of what they might shortly expect, when they saw the forty-twos striking here in this field and saw what execution they did among the cabbage and the beet75 patches."
We left the car and, following our guide, went to look. Spaced very neatly76 at intervals77 apart of perhaps a hundred and fifty yards a series of craters78 broke the surface of the earth. Considering the tools which dug them they were rather symmetrical craters, not jagged and gouged80, but with smooth walls and each in shape a perfect funnel81. We measured roughly a typical specimen82. Across the top it was between fifty and sixty feet in diameter, and it sloped down evenly for a depth of eighteen feet in the chalky soil to a pointed bottom, where two men would have difficulty standing83 together without treading upon each other's toes. Its sides were lined with loose pellets of earth of the average size of a tennis ball, and when we slid down into the hole these rounded clods accompanied us in small avalanches84.
[Pg 304]
We were filled with astonishment85, first, that an explosive grenade, weighing upward of a ton, could be so constructed that it would penetrate86 thus far into firm and solid earth before it exploded; and, second, that it could make such a neat saucer of a hole when it did explode. But there was a still more amazing thing to be pondered. Of the earth which had been dispossessed from the crevasse88, amounting to a great many wagonloads, no sign remained. It was not heaped up about the lips of the funnel; it was not visibly scattered over the nearermost furrows89 of that truck field. So far as we might tell it was utterly90 gone; and from that we deduced that the force of the explosion had been sufficient to pulverize91 the clay so finely and cast it so far and so wide that it fell upon the surface in a fine shower, leaving no traces unless one made a minute search for it. Noting the wonder upon our faces, the officer was moved to speak further in a tone of sincere admiration92, touching93 on the capabilities94 of the crowning achievement of the Krupp works:
"Pretty strong medicine, eh? Well, wait until I have shown you American gentlemen what remains of the fort; then you will better understand. Even here, out in the open, for a radius95 of a hundred and fifty meters, any man, conceding he wasn't killed outright, would be knocked senseless and after that for hours, even for days, perhaps, he would be[Pg 305] entirely unnerved. The force of the concussion96 appears to have that effect upon persons who are at a considerable distance—it rips their nerves to tatters. Some seem numbed97 and dazed; others develop an acute hysteria.
"Highly interesting, is it not? Listen then; here is something even more interesting: Within an inclosed space, where there is a roof to hold in the gas generated by the explosion or where there are reasonably high walls, the man who escapes being torn apart in the instant of impact, or who escapes being crushed to death by collapsing98 masonry99, or killed by flying fragments, is exceedingly likely to choke to death as he lies temporarily paralyzed and helpless from the shock. I was at Liège and again here, and I know from my own observations that this is true. At Liège particularly many of the garrison were caught and penned up in underground casements100, and there we found them afterward101 dead, but with no marks of wounds upon them—they had been asphyxiated102."
I suppose in times of peace the speaker was a reasonably kind man and reasonably regardful of the rights of his fellowmen. Certainly he was most courteous103 to us and most considerate; but he described this slaughter-pit scene with the enthusiasm of one who was a partner in a most creditable and worthy104 enterprise.
Immediately about Des Sarts stood many[Pg 306] telegraph poles in a row, for here the road, which was the main road from Paris to Brussels, curved close up under the grass-covered bastions. All the telegraph wires had been cut, and they dangled105 about the bases of the poles in snarled106 tangles107 like love vines. The ditches paralleling the road were choked with felled trees, and, what with the naked limbs, were as spiky108 as shad spines109. Of the small cottages which once had stood in the vicinity of the fort not one remained standing. Their sites were marked by flattened110 heaps of brick and plaster from which charred111 ends of rafters protruded112. It was as though a giant had sat himself down upon each little house in turn and squashed it to the foundation stones.
As a fort Des Sarts dated back to 1883. I speak of it in the past tense, because the Germans had put it in that tense. As a fort, or as anything resembling a fort, it had ceased to be, absolutely. The inner works of it—the redan and the underground barracks, and the magazines, and all—were built after the style followed by military engineers back in 1883, having revetments faced up with brick and stone; but only a little while ago—in the summer of 1913, to be exact—the job of inclosing the original works with a glacis of a newer type had been completed. So when the Germans came along in the first week of September it was in most respects made over into a modern fort. No doubt the re?nforce[Pg 307]ments of reserves that hurried into it to strengthen the regular garrison counted themselves lucky men to have so massive and stout113 a shelter from which to fight an enemy who must work in the open against them. Poor devils, their hopes crumbled114 along with their walls when the Germans brought up the forty-twos.
We entered in through a breach115 in the first parapet and crossed, one at a time, on a tottery116 wooden bridge which was propped117 across a fosse half full of rubble118, and so came to what had been the heart of the fort of Des Sarts. Had I not already gathered some notion of the powers for destruction of those one-ton, four-foot-long shells, I should have said that the spot where we halted had been battered119 and crashed at for hours; that scores and perhaps hundreds of bombs had been plumped into it. Now, though, I was prepared to believe the German captain when he said probably not more than five or six of the devil devices had struck this target. Make it six for good measure. Conceive each of the six as having been dammed by a hurricane and sired by an earthquake, and as being related to an active volcano on one side of the family and to a flaming meteor on the other. Conceive it as falling upon a man-made, masonry-walled burrow120 in the earth and being followed in rapid succession by five of its blood brethren; then you will begin to get some fashion[Pg 308] of mental photograph of the result. I confess myself as unable to supply any better suggestion for a comparison. Nor shall I attempt to describe the picture in any considerable detail. I only know that for the first time in my life I realized the full and adequate meaning of the word chaos121. The proper definition of it was spread broadcast before my eyes.
Appreciating the impossibility of comprehending the full scope of the disaster which here had befallen, or of putting it concretely into words if I did comprehend it, I sought to pick out small individual details, which was hard to do, too, seeing that all things were jumbled122 together so. This had been a series of cunningly buried tunnels and arcades124, with cozy125 subterranean126 dormitories opening off of side passages, and still farther down there had been magazines and storage spaces. Now it was all a hole in the ground, and the force which blasted it out had then pulled the hole in behind itself. We stood on the verge127, looking downward into a chasm128 which seemed to split its way to infinite depths, although in fact it was probably not nearly so deep as it appeared. If we looked upward there, forty feet above our heads, was a wide riven gap in the earth crust.
Near me I discerned a litter of metal fragments. From such of the scraps129 as retained any shape at all, I figured that they had been part of the protective casing of a gun mounted[Pg 309] somewhere above. The missile which wrecked130 the gun flung its armor down here. I searched my brain for a simile131 which might serve to give a notion of the present state of that steel jacket. I didn't find the one I wanted, but if you will think of an earthenware132 pot which has been thrown from a very high building upon a brick sidewalk you may have some idea of what I saw.
At that, it was no completer a ruin than any of the surrounding débris. Indeed, in the whole vista133 of annihilation but two objects remained recognizably intact, and these, strange to say, were two iron bed frames bolted to the back wall of what I think must have been a barrack room for officers. The room itself was no longer there. Brick, mortar134, stone, concrete, steel re?nforcements, iron props135, the hard-packed earth, had been ripped out and churned into indistinguishable bits, but those two iron beds hung fast to a discolored patch of plastering, though the floor was gone from beneath them. Seemingly they were hardly damaged. One gathered that a 42-centimeter shell possessed87 in some degree the freakishness which we associate with the behavior of cyclones136.
We were told that at the last, when the guns had been silenced and dismounted and the walls had been pierced and the embrasures blown bodily away, the garrison, or what was left of it, fled to these lowermost shelters. But the[Pg 310] burrowing137 bombs found the refugees out and killed them, nearly all, and those of them who died were still buried beneath our feet in as hideous a sepulcher138 as ever was digged. There was no getting them out from that tomb. The Crack of Doom139 will find them still there, I guess.
To reach a portion of Des Sarts, as yet unvisited, we skirted the gape140 of the crater79, climbing over craggy accumulations of wreckage141, and traversed a tunnel with an arched roof and mildewed142 brick walls, like a wine vault143. The floor of it was littered with the knapsacks and water bottles of dead or captured men, with useless rifles broken at the stocks and bent144 in the barrels, and with suchlike riffle. At the far end of the passage we came out into the open at the back side of the fort.
"Right here," said the officer who was piloting us, "I witnessed a sight which made a deeper impression upon me than anything I have seen in this campaign. After the white flag had been hoisted145 by the survivors146 and we had marched in, I halted my men just here at the entrance to this arcade123. We didn't dare venture into the redan, for sporadic147 explosions were still occurring in the ammunition148 stores. Also there were fires raging. Smoke was pouring thickly out of the mouth of the tunnel. It didn't seem possible that there could be anyone alive back yonder.
[Pg 311]
"All of a sudden, men began to come out of the tunnel. They came and came until there were nearly two hundred of them—French reservists mostly. They were crazy men—crazy for the time being, and still crazy, I expect, some of them. They came out staggering, choking, falling down and getting up again. You see, their nerves were gone. The fumes149, the gases, the shock, the fire, what they had endured and what they had escaped—all these had distracted them. They danced, sang, wept, laughed, shouted in a sort of maudlin150 frenzy151, spun152 about deliriously153 until they dropped. They were deafened154, and some of them could not see but had to grope their way. I remember one man who sat down and pulled off his boots and socks and threw them away and then hobbled on in his bare feet until he cut the bottoms of them to pieces. I don't care to see anything like that again—even if it is my enemies that suffer it."
He told it so vividly155, that standing alongside of him before the tunnel opening I could see the procession myself—those two hundred men who had drained horror to its lees and were drunk on it.
We went to Fort Boussois, some four miles away. It was another of the keys to the town. It was taken on September sixth; on the next day, September seventh, the citadel156 surrendered. Here, in lieu of the 42-centimeter, which was otherwise engaged for the moment,[Pg 312] the attacking forces brought into play an Austrian battery of 30-centimeter guns. So far as I have been able to ascertain157 this was the only Austrian command which had any part in the western campaigns. The Austrian gunners shelled the fort until the German infantry had been massed in a forest to the northward158. Late in the afternoon the infantry charged across a succession of cleared fields and captured the outer slopes. With these in their possession it didn't take them very long to compel the surrender of Fort Boussois, especially as the defenders159 had already been terribly cut up by the artillery fire.
The Austrians must have been first-rate marksmen. One of their shells fell squarely upon the rounded dome160 of a big armored turret161 which was sunk in the earth and chipped off the top of it as you would chip your breakfast egg. The men who manned the guns in that revolving162 turret must all have died in a flash of time. The impact of the blow was such that the leaden solder163 which filled the interstices of the segments of the turret was squeezed out from between the plates in curly strips, like icing from between the layers of a misused164 birthday cake.
Back within the main works we saw where a shell had bored a smooth, round orifice through eight meters of earth and a meter and a half of concrete and steel plates. Peering into the shaft165 we could make out the floor of a tunnel[Pg 313] some thirty feet down. To judge by its effects, this shell had been of a different type from any others whose work we had witnessed. Apparently it had been devised to excavate166 holes rather than to explode, and when we asked questions about it we speedily ascertained167 that our guide did not care to discuss the gun which had inflicted168 this particular bit of damage.
"It is not permitted to speak of this matter," he said in explanation of his attitude. "It is a military secret, this invention. We call it a mine gun."
Every man to his taste. I should have called it a well-digger.
Erect169 upon the highest stretch of riddled170 walls, with his legs spraddled far apart and his arms jerking in expressive171 gestures, he told us how the German infantry had advanced across the open ground. It had been hard, he said, to hold the men back until the order for the charge was given, and then they burst from their cover and came on at a dead run, cheering.
"It was very fine," he added. "Very glorious."
"Did you have any losses in the charge?" asked one of our party.
"Oh, yes," he answered, as though that part of the proceeding172 was purely173 an incidental detail and of no great consequence. "We lost many men here—very many—several[Pg 314] thousands, I think. Most of them are buried where you see those long ridges174 in the second field beyond."
In a sheltered corner of a redoubt, close up under a parapet and sheathed175 on its inner side with masonry, was a single grave. The pounding feet of many fighting men had beaten the mound176 flat, but a small wooden cross still stood in the soil, and on it in French were penciled the words:
"Here lies Lieutenant177 Verner, killed in the charge of battle."
His men must have thought well of the lieutenant to take the time, in the midst of the defense19, to bury him in the place where he fell, for there were no other graves to be seen within the fort.
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professing
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| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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dictates
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| n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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judgments
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| 判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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repelling
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| v.击退( repel的现在分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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caliber
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| n.能力；水准 | |
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notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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inflicting
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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28
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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29
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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30
consular
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| a.领事的 | |
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31
diplomat
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| n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人 | |
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32
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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33
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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34
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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35
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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36
recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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37
hoisting
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| 起重，提升 | |
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38
cataclysms
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| n.（突然降临的）大灾难( cataclysm的名词复数 ) | |
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39
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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40
begrudgingly
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| 小气地，吝啬地 | |
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41
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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42
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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43
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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44
pertaining
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| 与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to) | |
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45
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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46
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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47
budged
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| v.（使）稍微移动( budge的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）改变主意，（使）让步 | |
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48
instilling
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| v.逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instil的现在分词 )；逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instill的现在分词 ) | |
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49
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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50
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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51
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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52
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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53
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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54
craftsmanship
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| n.手艺 | |
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55
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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56
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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57
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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58
razed
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| v.彻底摧毁，将…夷为平地( raze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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60
eyewitness
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| n.目击者，见证人 | |
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61
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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62
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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63
devastation
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| n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤 | |
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64
obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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65
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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66
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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67
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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68
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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69
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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70
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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71
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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72
detailed
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|
| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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73
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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74
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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75
beet
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| n.甜菜；甜菜根 | |
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76
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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77
intervals
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|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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78
craters
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| n.火山口( crater的名词复数 )；弹坑等 | |
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79
crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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80
gouged
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|
| v.凿( gouge的过去式和过去分词 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出… | |
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81
funnel
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|
| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
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82
specimen
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|
| n.样本，标本 | |
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83
standing
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|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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84
avalanches
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| n.雪崩( avalanche的名词复数 ) | |
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85
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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86
penetrate
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|
| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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87
possessed
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|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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88
crevasse
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|
| n. 裂缝，破口；v.使有裂缝 | |
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89
furrows
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|
| n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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90
utterly
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|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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91
pulverize
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| v.研磨成粉；摧毁 | |
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92
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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93
touching
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|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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94
capabilities
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|
| n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力 | |
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95
radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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96
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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97
numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98
collapsing
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| 压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂 | |
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99
masonry
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|
| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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100
casements
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|
| n.窗扉( casement的名词复数 ) | |
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101
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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102
asphyxiated
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|
| v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的过去式和过去分词 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
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103
courteous
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|
| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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104
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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105
dangled
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| 悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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106
snarled
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|
| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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107
tangles
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| （使）缠结， （使）乱作一团( tangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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108
spiky
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|
| adj.长而尖的，大钉似的 | |
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109
spines
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| n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊 | |
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110
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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111
charred
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|
| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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112
protruded
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|
| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114
crumbled
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|
| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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115
breach
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|
| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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116
tottery
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| adj.蹒跚的，摇摇欲倒 | |
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117
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
rubble
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| n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾 | |
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119
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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120
burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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121
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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122
jumbled
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| adj.混乱的；杂乱的 | |
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123
arcade
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| n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道 | |
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124
arcades
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| n.商场( arcade的名词复数 )；拱形走道（两旁有商店或娱乐设施）；连拱廊；拱形建筑物 | |
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125
cozy
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|
| adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的 | |
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126
subterranean
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|
| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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127
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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128
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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129
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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130
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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131
simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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132
earthenware
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| n.土器，陶器 | |
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133
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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134
mortar
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| n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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135
props
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| 小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋 | |
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136
cyclones
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| n.气旋( cyclone的名词复数 )；旋风；飓风；暴风 | |
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137
burrowing
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| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的现在分词 )；翻寻 | |
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138
sepulcher
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| n.坟墓 | |
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139
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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140
gape
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| v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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141
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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142
mildewed
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|
| adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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143
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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144
bent
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|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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145
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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146
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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147
sporadic
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| adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的 | |
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148
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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149
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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150
maudlin
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|
| adj.感情脆弱的，爱哭的 | |
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151
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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152
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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153
deliriously
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| adv.谵妄（性）；发狂；极度兴奋/亢奋；说胡话 | |
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154
deafened
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| 使聋( deafen的过去式和过去分词 )； 使隔音 | |
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155
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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156
citadel
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| n.城堡；堡垒；避难所 | |
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157
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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158
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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159
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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160
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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161
turret
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| n.塔楼，角塔 | |
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162
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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163
solder
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| v.焊接，焊在一起；n.焊料，焊锡 | |
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164
misused
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| v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用 | |
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165
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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166
excavate
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| vt.挖掘，挖出 | |
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167
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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168
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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169
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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170
riddled
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| adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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171
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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172
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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173
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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174
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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175
sheathed
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| adj.雕塑像下半身包在鞘中的；覆盖的；铠装的；装鞘了的v.将（刀、剑等）插入鞘( sheathe的过去式和过去分词 )；包，覆盖 | |
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176
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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177
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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