ALONG THE ALLIES' BATHE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2325, 5 December 1914, Page 7

ALONG THE ALLIES' BATHE FRONT

A CORRESPONDENT'S TOUR ("Times", and Sydney "Sun" Services.) London, December 8. 'A correspondent who was officially conducted along the Allies' lines states that the Allies' losses in killed and wounded at the Ypros-Araentieres battle were 80,000, and the Germans' 120,000. He visited Ypres, which , was still under shell fire, and gives a vivid account of the ruined and deserted streets. Amongst many devastated buildings was the Cathedral of Saint Martin, which was a mass of ruins. • The correspondent describes the con« ditions round the Woevre. The advanced trenches were sometimes only thirty yards apart, arid a certain amount of familiarity pnd good-fellow ship had grown up between the opposing ranks. In some places they had agreed upon fixed "close times" daily for meals, drawing water, and washing .when no shooting was allowed. The soldiers roll up German and. French papers and toes them between the trenches.. The French love to play little tricks. A corporal stole out in the darkness and placed a gramaphone near the German trenches, playing the "Marseillaise," and causing a wild fusilade. Tlio Frenchmen, «afe-k their shelters, enjoyed the joke hugely. \A cook, carrying some pots of soup, stumbled upon a German trench. Placing the soup on the ground, he knocked down two Germans, picked up the pots, and ran for his life. He was the target for a few shots, but escaped. Another correspondent 6ays that for the assistance ot aviators, ingenious methods of signalling have been adopted. The hands of church clocks, the bells in their towers, linen spread on the ground, lighted windows, open or closed shutters, are amongst the devices employed. German shell-cases picked up at the commencement of the war were dated from 1904 to 1907; now they are dated from 1913 to 1914. Many new rifles captured from which no 6hot had been fired indicate that they had been in the hands of untrained recruits.