GERMAN VIEW OF OUR SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2359, 15 January 1915, Page 6

GERMAN VIEW OF OUR SOLDIERS

1 A CHANGE IN TONE j ' . ° 1 • i EXPERIENCES AT YPRES. ( ■' l (From a Correspondent.) In the earlier days of .the war the German Press ivas by no means prono to praise the fighting' qualities of the British Boldier, but nowadays it is different—the English soldier Lib. compelled the unwilling respect and appreciation of his enemies, and the article reprinted below is only one of many of similar tenor now finding their way into the_ German newspapers. Protests , against the circulation of certain -vulgar ' picture postcards holding the English nation and army up to ridicule have . been published. It is significant that : as a first lieutenant with the German ! soldiers at the front. The following article appears in the ' "Berliner Zeitung am ,Mittag," under , the title of "The Fights with the Eng- : lish around Ypres, by a Combatant," ; the combatant in question being one of ! the editors . of that newspaper serving' as a first lieutenant wtih the German forces. . . ; "Full of fight and confident of easy victory our young regiments started to : march against the enemy, to 'catch the i English,' as our soldiers put it. All . were certain that Providence had gifted . the English with long legs solely to facilitate their> running away the faster. ' Thus we advanced by long' and Bhort ! marches through Flanders, the great cemetery, towards the_ west, delighted with the beautiful Flemish landscape and the inhabitants thereof, whose language we soon managed to understand even as'they speedily came to understand . ours. \Ve thought of the pictures that the comic papers aro wont to .give of Tommy Atkins, and looked forward to , the prospect of gathering in a firstolass ' tennis racket from the war equipment ' of one of these 'smooth-faced rascals.' There were a few who warned us against : a possible under-estimation of the English, but their misgivings were quieted by pointing out that these were mercenary troops before us, men hired for , a few pence a day to fight, bare of patriotism and incapable of sacrifice. The First Englishman, i Sooner than we thought we were upon the enemy. One morning on our , march someone called out: "Here is the first dead Englishman!" We galloped across the field where one of our pa- ■ trols had-halted a few hundred yards from roadway. There ho. lay, tho Englishman, the first we had seen in this .campaign, dead, stretched out on . his right side. _ The bullet had gone : clean through his heart. Very young, ; slim, and sinewy of body, becomingly ■ clad in his -field-grey khaki uniform. : The young, beardless face was, snowy ] white and his left hand cramped on j Jiis chest. Ono more mother will soon ■ ,be shedding bitter tears! Shortly after ( we discovered in a house two wounded - English officers, and confiscated their ■ diaries, which contained many valuable notes, while an hour later the first Eng- i lish prisoner was picked up ; by a patrol t and passed/ -along/our column. He j naturally was of great interest to our i soldiers. "Lo6ks like a chauffeur— ] wonder whether the mercenary can ■ shoot—looks more cut out for the foot- ] ball and cricket field 1" Another hour ] passed and then the comrades of our prisoner gave us a practical demonstration—such a clear demonstration tiiat • our battalion was reduced to half its size after the first few encounters., One suddenly realised that the English mercenary : could not be routed with just- a hurrah and a yell, and we learned from personal experience that these smoothfaced gentlemen used their, long legs not always for running away, but some : ( times/ for 3esper-ate and dangerous charges. Within a few hours .we learn- ■ ed that we had facing us an opponent | not/to be .under-estimated. , . , -, ( The English-infantry who opposed us , at Ypres must be considered among ( their best troops.' Particular stress ( must be laid on the energy with which ( the English infantry defended the hills , occupied by them and when driven back i tried again and : again, especially at . night, to recover the lost ground. In ( these endeavours they were_ efficiently , supported by the fire of their, field ar- , tillery, which, like the French, is quite , equal to the German. They had also , transported heavy naval guns to Ypres. , and the English shells, and shrapnel ■ have caused enormous damage among , our own infantry. As the surrounding ] of • the ' English forces by our .troops , made itself more and more felt, the , English infantry tried again and again , ot break through our lines, particularly ; in the vicinity . of Becelaere, though , without success. On the occasion, of one of these attempts to break through i 500 English and 20 officers fell :nto ■ our hands. .-' . i The English'trenches were mostly so arranged as to be quite invisible to the | naked eye. When we had-got into the i first trenches we were astounded ait their j systematic construction as Tegards j depth, side protection against splinter- , ing of shells, breastwork, and flooring. , The trenches were nearly all excellently arranged for 'a long stand. We were , particularly , astonished at the'steel and ] iron plates built into the breastworks. , The floors of the trenches were designed ■ with an eye to maximum comfort. Our ! men captured there a,mass of excellent t preserves, corned beef and liam, and ■ many also secured one of the shaving ' outfits which nearly every English sol- i dier carries. When we had taken a - position it frequently occurred that we ] found a disproportionate number of ' dead'to very few living defenders. At ■ anyrate it looked like that at the first glance, but we soon discovered that a , large number of tho "killed" were shamming and these were easily "tickled" ■ into life with the bayonet. i In' some cases tho English had dug : trenches but had not occupied them, i and to deceive us had put large round i turnips and similar objects along the breastworks. Their firing line was then ; placed either before or' behind this : trench, so well assimilated to the land i as to be practically invisible, so that it ' was almost untouched by the fire which : we directed against what we considered the occupied trend;. Frequently it happened that severe infantry machine gun firing broke forth from the of a wood. Firing was directed against the : wood; and we then advanced against it 1 ia short rushes, only to find on arrival : that- the ground was practically clear of soldiers, and that nearly all the shots had been fired down from the trees. The : English infantry had hidden itself in ■ the tree-tops and had even hauled up machine guns. Harassing Night Attacks. In combats at night our opponents repeatedly use tactics now to us; , As ] a rule, we avoid firing at night, but. ) u?e tho bayonet, and shoot onjy when ' it is light enough to take aim. Tho I English and French seem, however, in ' their rifle firing by night to have gono ] over partly to tho usual practice of the i artillery, which, as is. well known, con- ' tinuousiy sweeps certain selected I stretches of ground by shell (ire. After 1 my regiment had occupied tho village 1 of' Becelaere after nightfall, a continu- ; ous infantry firo lasting for hours swept i over houses and streets, so that it was irvipossiblo to remain thero. After en- , trenching near Becelaere we were liar- | asscd all night by a continuous lire of | infantry and machine guns, which re- i suited in very low victims, but pro- I vented the worn-out troops from getting . a moment's rest. And this was just I what tha English wanted. j Let Ufi beware, of under-estimating i

our opponents even if they are but the English mercenary. In another Berlin newspaper is given an equally long account of the allnight siege of some farm buildings in whioli a body of English troops ot unknown strength had taken refuge. After houra of desporato fighting all the buildings were at last in flames; and the English were compelled to come out and surrender, tlio writer describing. with some humour his disgust at the discovery that the defending garrison tbat had been holding a good-sized German detachment at Bay all night comprised ono English colonel, one major, and 34 men.