Wengler claims he ceased firing shells set fire to
the roof and utterly wrecked the chapel of the cathedral and the
Archbishop's palace, which is joined to the cathedral by a yard no wider
than Fifth Avenue, and in the direction of the German guns the two
shells fired by Lieut. Wengler had already wrecked all that part of the
city surrounding the cathedral for a quarter of a mile.
To get an idea of the destruction, suppose St. Patrick's Cathedral, on
Fifth Avenue, to be the Rheims Cathedral, the Union Club, and the
Vanderbilt houses, the chapel and Archbishop's palace, and all the
buildings running north from St. Patrick's Cathedral to Central Park and
east and west to Madison Avenue and Sixth Avenue, that part of Rheims
that was utterly wrecked. That gives you some idea of the effectiveness
of Lieut. Wengler's fire.
"Father," he says, "I cannot tell a lie. I did it with only two shells!"
The statement of Lieut. Wengler that the French placed a battery a
hundred yards from the cathedral also is interesting. The cathedral
stands in a maze of twisting narrow lanes. From no spot within a quarter
of a mile of it could you drive a golf ball without smashing a window a
hundred feet distant. To place a battery of artillery a hundred yards
from the Rheims Cathedral with the intent of firing upon the German
position would be like placing a battery in Wall Street with the idea of
shelling Germans in the Bronx.
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