GERMAN PRINCE'S WAR BOOK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2638, 8 December 1915, Page 5

GERMAN PRINCE'S WAR BOOK

TRIBUTE TO FRENCH GALLANTRY By TeltsTaub—Pre<B Association—Oouyrisht ("Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services.) London, December 6. Prince Oscar, the fifth son of the Kaiser, has written a little book called "Winter Battle." It describes the fighting of the 3rd German Army in the Champagus district in February and March.

Prince Oscar, who is an officer on the staff of tie Commanding General, describing the defence of Hill 196, is constrained to acknowledge the marvellous valour, reckless courage, and the nerve of the French. "It was not the French infantry attacks that made this battle so hideous, hut the artillery, which converted it into a livine hell. The artillery was in enormous strength, and huge supplies of ammunition were spent lavishly. Life in the trenches was a perpetual nightmare. One day, in a small area, the French threw one hundred thousand shells with a- rapidity that equalled machine-gun fire. 'Drumfire' is the nam© of this 'sort of artillery work. Its effects are simply dreadful, unspeakable. I do not know the sort of earthworks able to withstand such fire, even for a short time. It was .impossible for any livine creature to survive the hellish turmoil. When the firms: ceased, to allow the French to attack, our men crawled out of the funnels with pocketfuls of grenades. groped out of the broken foundations of crumbling cement and trickling sandbags, and grabbing their Kims, remilsed the French scores of times. Suddenly, on the afternoon of March 18, the' enemy attacked. Tire densely-massed Guards Reserve received the main shock, but were not shaken. The Ttircos attacked in five lines. Our hand crenados tore hundreds limb from limb and hlew the first two ?ines to atoms. The succeeding lines fared no better; those who cscaped the grenades were felled by pickaxes or bayoneted, arid forced back a writhing maelstrom of denselv-pack-ed humanity rolling in disorderly retreat, and swept bv our heavv, artillery. The losses of the French were inhuman and sickening. Thus ended tho battle of the Champagne, after months of frantic fighting nnd a frightful toll in blood. The French were forced to abandon the effort to penetrate our linos. Tho value of iron discipline was overwhelmingly demonstrated. Youthful enthusiasm may be undermined, and patriotism forced into temporary abeyance by an limir's cruel shelling. The verv power to think becomes inhibited; then discipline asserts itself, and is bound to bo tho determining factor for the rock of Germany to rest on securer earth, on thfl shoiil" ef Att&srrww Btorhm unax#