GERMAN ANXIETIES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2462, 15 May 1915, Page 9

GERMAN ANXIETIES

WAITING FOE KITCHENER'S ARMY

A NIGHT IN THE BRITISH TRENCHES. . Mr. Frederick Palmer, the Amerloan correspondent, writes from the British Headquarters in France on March 28:— While the world is eager fcr news, day upon day ■ may pass at tho front with no news except that of desultory Mtillory and rifle fire—which is tho normal existence—or except when some supreme efforts are made. Noxt to having witnessed the battle of Nouve Chapelle, the most interesting thing is a night m the British line of workß which defend th'it section of. the 6hell-torn earth which the British troops have Won and held against all German effcrt6 at recovery. Such a visit, made alone, without any Cook's tour correspondence or automobile accessories, is no pastoral idyll of peaceful security. ; When a corps staff officer who gave me permission to go requested me to sign a paper releasing the army authorities from anv responsibility, one could only reply that;it was something like crossing Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street during the rush hour without holding the Tllayor of New York ac.run over. >

holding the '"Mayor of New York achm over. > Lines 300 Yards Apart. ' The Germans are given to shelling the avenues :of approach to the British line at tho edge of the village. Stray''bullets crack against the shattered village walls, and one leaves their cover to find himself within 300 or 400 yards of the German breastworks. Yet the most cheerful spot where the British flag flies is here. It is worth enduring a sleepless night and plunging in the mud in order to enter into the spirit of the soldiers who have suffered such hard knocks and have at last seen the tide turn.

Though rumours come from London of complaint voiced over tie heavy cost oi the victory, I must tay that I have yet to talk- with an olheer or man at ihe front who takes that point of view. They know the situation, and are prepared to pay the price which success requires. The point thev make is that they were able to make the gain without uny heavier losses than those of the (jlermaas who were forced to' yield.

Situation Reversed. . "A lot of our fellows were killed," said a soldier, "but this time it wa6 in pushing the Germans, instead of. trying to hola them back. You can't 6ir, unless you have been in it from Mons on, how that buoks you iip." My hoafc in the breastworks was a captain who, on the previous day, had received a shot through the arm, and. though officially reported wounded, had remained in his mud-bespattered uniform on duty, with no Bed except a rubber sheet laid 'on the wot earth. His relatives in Britain may worry about him, but he does' not worry about him: self, though when the war is over he (yrtainly is going to hive one real bath imd.one good meal in London, no matter what the cost. When I noticed that he had no blankets in his dugout, he explained that those of the men had not been brought up yet, and he wanted to enjoy no luxury which they lacked. ' 0Like faint aureoles of' light showing aljove the line of the German breastworks rose their camp fires,' which are a counterpart of the British braziers, made by punching holes in any sort of a bucket they could find. Around these the men off duty gather to keep warm, and to fry thoir bacon and make tea. Time sped rapidly as one moved from group, to group to chat, keeping the bead well below the parapet to avoid the German bullets. standing Dead Cermans. "We are standing 011 dead Germans," said one soldier. "We turned their trenches in to make graves, and good' trenches they were, too, for the. 'Boches' are handy men with their spades and smart soldiers." ; When a fusillade broke out in a distant part of our lines at the _sign of some movement, the Germans in front of us burst into yells of derision. Later in the night the same Germans Baw some phantom in the darkness, and began firing feverishly, when it' became our turn to laugh. At a point where the trenches are only 60 yards apart, after the "good morning" calls,had been exchanged on the previous day, an English-speaking German asked: —

"When is Kitchener's Army coming? I want this blankety-blankety war over, so I can go home." "Don't get dowriheaited, my dear," Tommy Atkins called back. "You're already started, and you'll know when the new army comes, because you'll be going faster than you want to." Here we could distinctly hear these Germans talking, and the commands of their officers, and the driving of stakes, as they strengthened their works.

A Fearful Spectacle. German rifles, helmets, caps, and diaries are plentiful' in ' the ' British, breastworks, and the souvenir-hunter could have a helmet at any time by going out in front for it. In the moonlight dark patches, with points like bloodless human faces, were visible, on the field between the two forces whereover you went along the front. TJndet the light of the German flares they took tho form of masses, of prostrate bodies, and by daylight one could see the attitude of each as they fell, including the one with the unesploded hand-grenade lying whero it dropped from his hand.

Across this field the Germans mado their main charge to recover Neuve Chapelle. It was not for want of courage that they failed. A'German official bulletin stated that the German losses at Neuve dinpelle were 6000, but this will hardly include the known killed and the 2000 prisoners!* taken, without counting the wounded.

Bodies Lay Where They Fell. Though the Germans stout badinage from their trenches, they asked no armistioo to bury their dead, and on previous occasions when the British asked for the privilege to bury the British doad it 'had been refused. Therefore the bodies remained where they fell. This shows how grim is tho actuality, despite the occasional sallies of wit. A breastwork jester, takes care not to show his head when ho makes a quip, lost a bullot make it his last. It is a shrewd, calculating war, and ©very movement from parapot and camp-fire is under protection of the wall of sandbags, which the bullots cannot penetrate. I have hoard plenty of admiration oppressed for tho skill of Germans as soldiers from both the officers and the men, who add, however, expressions of thoir confidence that tho Germans have phot tl-eir bolt.

The Place for the Irish. When we came to an Irish regiment I heard'an-Irishman sny: "I have this© brothers in tho States, and I am going there myself after tho war. The Germans Jieed a licking, and whenever anybody needs a licking that's tho placa for the Irish."

Theso Irishman insisted thut I have a cup of tea —and wouldn't I try a slice of baoon, which was sizzluig iii the p<W while an occasional bullet whistlod over tlia parapet. My wounded host, going beyond his own bailiwick, chattcil with his follow-officers about breastworkmaking and other business details. They referre'd to this and that friend who had been killed since they last met, as if death were a familiar thing to all.

in it, end all had no other thought than continuing until victory waa gained. If I got a few yards ahead of hit, gnide I found how rare was the privilege of a civilian to be alone in that exclusive world. Some soldier instantly demanded to know who I was, and if there happened to be no one about to identify me 1 should have been promptly apprehended and 6ent to headquarters under suspicion of being a spy. It was after three in the morning when my host and I lay down in his dugout, but not to sleep, for there aro many things to talk about. Twice when the desultory firing became heavier on both sides he went out to see what i was the cause.

"Cerman Pretty Grouchy." "We have not settled down yet on 1 this front," he said. "The Germane are pretty grouchy yet over their beatting. 'Both-6ides begin firing on the slightest alarm. They don't want to risk' any night attack getting started." At dawn, as I said "Gooa-bye" and expressed regret to my host at having kept him awako all night, ho laughingly replied.-' "On, 110, I stay awake always at night. My timo for sleep is from . 8 until 1 by day, when we can see the Germans if'they , try on any tricks/' In leaving the lilies by daylight cars must be taken- 'against- appearing in open spaces wbioh are visible to the enemy's sharp-shooters, who may not make a miss a second time even if they, do the first. ',

To. see Neuve Ghapello by daylight is to see tho most'fearful example of tho power of modern artillery fire yefc witnssd. No village'is left; there is onlfl mashed brick and mortar/ with the exocption of half a dozen houses, which! were' hit several times. Aftisr'knocking the buildings to pir.ccs the British sheila kneaded and pulverised tho remains. ' Yet two objects stood practically unharmed on that low skylino of ruins; they were effigies of Christ on the Cross, of the type familiar to travellers in Prance. Eight-inch shells had excavated enormous holas on either side of ' the base of one. While other trees in the town had been out in two and splintered and gashed, four small ever- v green shrubs around tho other effigy had been undisturbed. > Many of the soldiers talked much of it.

That Last Great Rush. In going over the ground one readily visualised how this battle which stiffened the British confidcnce had. been fought. There were tho remains of the old frontal and reserve trenches which tho Germans occupied when the battle began with a burst of fire from a multitude of guns fired on signal. One could realise how in the crash of explosions and rending of earth there could be only insane oonfusion in- the German trench which the British infantry rushed; how that terrific blast of gunnery was carried on to the next defence, and the infantry charge again to gain possession of another few hundred yards of ground; how in_ the streets of the village whole.parties of Germans surrendered; and others, des--perate in the pandemonium, tried to return and fire back. ' • Germans Utterly Surprised. The Germans were taken utterly by surpriso. Neuve Chapelle was a slaughter for them; tho British advancing into the town with little less loss, suffered most of their casualties, when the mist would not let their puns support them, and they tried, to carry their advance beyond the present line of their trenches. 1

Nothing in this war has been more satisfactory to the British Army at tho front than Neuve Chapelle. "It has given us confidenoe in our strength," says the officers. (t lt has tested our organisation for tho offensive tactics required in t-hiß kind of war, and has demonstrated the power and precision of our artillery." _As I was I leaving Neuve Chapelle an aircraft gun began shelling a British aeroplane apI poaring over the German lines, at a height of 6000 ft. Firing wildly at first, at length it forced the plane to turn and pursued it by a string of shrapnel puffs against the blue sky; it disappeared above a fleecy cloud, only to turn around and reappear again oyer tho German lines. Then_ ono shell burst near the plane that it seemed to 1 careen, but It managed to retreat successfully. Don't Look Up.

When the bullets from one tf the shrapnel sent in its wako fell about us ( a Tommy Atkins who was present remarked ■with characteristic imperturbability:— . , , ~ "You don't want to look when those things fall) or you might get hit m the eye." B . , Proceeding along the road to Brigade Headquarters, one was possessed by the thought that he had been near to the heart of life at the British front, i\or among; the impressions gained could I leave out the remark of a Frenchman about the wreckage of Neuve Chapelle. "It was good," he said, "because it means that we bare recovered some of the soil of France from the enemy.-