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NAKED HORROR OF WAR

ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF LOOS

A VIVID PICTURE By Telegraph—Press 'Association—Copyright ' London, Ootober 5. A' vivid picture of'the Loos battlefield is given by Mr. Philip Gibbs in the "Daily Chronicle." Ho writes: "I wont to-day to the centre of the great, battlefield, where there is still heavy fighting, and stood near the famous Loos redoubt. A little distance away, looming grim and gaunt against the grey rose tho tall steel columns of the mining works.

"I can hardly put in words tho picture of the scenes through which I passed, and the dreadful aspect of the battlefields upon which the sun shone in splashes of light through the storm clcuds; the turmoil of war in the background, thousands of men moving in 6tcady column forwards and backwards in tho queer, tangled way they do in battle.

"Vast convoys of transports choked the roads. With the trains and motor ambulances packed -with wounded men, and infantry plodding through slush and .slime, the heroes of battle passed and repassed in dense masses and small battalions. Legions of tall lads, who a few months ago marched in smart trim down, tli? English lanes,- tmdged under their burden of heavy packs. Their smartness ivas soiled by war, but they were splendid because of their hardiness and endurance. The Atmosphere of Death. "It ; is a long walk through the narrow trenches towards Loos Redoubt, and there was the smell of death in the narrow winding ways. A soldier who had been killed at the entrance way knelt with bent head, as though at prayer. Soon the roar of guns , was intessant, and very close. . . "Passing over the parapets I saw the whole panorama of the battleground.' It was but an ugly naked plain rising to Hulluch and Haisnes on the north, falling to Loos oil the east, and, rising again to Hill 70. I saw two men clad in khaki carrying a German gas cylinder, whistling as they passed. "The German trenches were a minute's ruu across open ground. The dead wero still heaped about them—a (jnass of horror. Down below in the town of Loos they were digging out the dead from deep cellars, removing the bodies for burial,' and piling up German helmets, letters, weapons, and a great store of booty. What Prisoners' Letters Revealed. "The booty included a big bronze bell, used 'in the German trenches to signal a British attack; but best of all, apart from the guns, is the enormous mass of documents taken at Loos and in the trenches. They -'reveal' the mentality of the German,army. "One very curious and . instructive letter showed that a • German girl, in writing : to her swcetlieirt, complained that all the young manhood of the country had gone. The 1916 recruits had been called; to the colours, and the 1917 and 191S classes had been registered, so that every boy in the Fatherland was on roll call.

"A sense of depression fills most of tho documents, which show that half the German "array is filled with forcboding." x

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19151007.2.38

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2586, 7 October 1915, Page 5

Word count
Tapeke kupu
508

NAKED HORROR OF WAR Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2586, 7 October 1915, Page 5

NAKED HORROR OF WAR Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2586, 7 October 1915, Page 5

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