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DISPIRITED GERMANS

LETTERS REVEAL DEPRESSION letters written by German soldiers during tho battle of Champagne, found on prisoners and dead, throw some light on the spirit of the troops, says a Paris message. "The battle-front has disappeared in a cloud of smoke," wrote one. "Nothing can be seen, for tlic Preach, artillery fires almost as rapidly as tho infantry. Our armoured' shelter was Viushed in, and not one of the sixteen occupants escaped. Men are falling liko flies, and tho trenches are nothing but debris. "Shells are simply Taining upon us," another wrote. "If the end were only near! Tliis is the cry everyone should raise—'Peace! Peace!'" "Cruel hours!" a captain noted in his diary. "Jt is as if the earth were crumbling up. Our losses are vfery heavy, One company of 250 men had 60 killed last night-, and a battery close by lost 16 dead. A shelter five yards deep, protected by two rows of logs-and 2.J yards of earth, was caved in as if it were only a match; that's a specimen of the force of the French shells." "Many of. our men are useless," wrote the captain of the 24th Infantry in a report intended for his superior officer. "We must have reinforcements at once. Our .men aro dying of fatigue, privation, and loss of sleep." "Nothing to Eat; Heavy Losses." "Nothing to eat; heavy losses," noted another. "The French haven't ceased firing since the of the 21st it has gone on sixty hours; how long" will it last? Every spot of our position is so bombarded that it is nest to impossible for human beings to hold out any longer."

'/Six of ,our men were killed by shells yesterday, morning," wrote a captain. "Our trench has been nearly levelled. The 11th Battalion has suffered heavily." How tho reinforcements weTe hurried up is revealed by another officer. "We were croivded into autos," he wrote, "and' rushed madly from Vouziers to Tahure. After two hours' rest in the rain and six hours' march to our position, under constant shell fire, we reached the trench, losing SG otit of 280 men of the' second company hy the way. fl'e were 118 hours without, food in a trench not 2ft. deep. Hell couldn't be worse. Six hundred more have just arrived. They will only replace > the dead and wounded of the past few days. Orders of German commanders that fell into the hands of the French indicate that the attack was not a surprise, and there has been a natural reluctance to believe that German organisation and discipline were in default. Information obtained from eye-witnesses of the operations is to the.', effect that the German .counter-attacks were neither spirited nor well conceived. Confusion fn German Ranks, If the attack was no surprise, tlie forco of it was a revelation. It appears to have thrown a certain confusion into the German ranks, resulting in precipitate and almost disorderly engagement of reserves. The men seemed both exhausted and demoralised, incapable of properly undertaking a general counterattack. Over-confidence in the solidity in the first-line trenches seemed to be general among tho 'officers, for many of them _ were found in bod at Trou-Bricot a half-hour after the attack began. They were ignorant of the capture of the first line of trendhes, because the telephone wires had been ruptured. ' In the counter-attacks divisions were broken up and scattered; regiments even were divided; battalions sent to the right and left in absolute contradiction of the German spirit of organThere wore engaged between the Maison do Champagne and 199 Hill 32 battalions,- belonging to 21 different regiments., "What acted most on thi» nerves of tho German troops, according to information brought out hy questioning prisoners, was the continuity of the French artillery fire', the weakness of their own reply, the extent of'their losses, lack of food for ■ several days, and thirst. They surrendered in sections in many instances, and in whole companies in some. All acknowledged they were tired of the struggle. A fact that is regarded as significant is that the reinforcements the Germans sent up during the battle were mostly of ..the contingent of 1915, witli some volunteers - of the contingent of 1916 previously held in reserve at their baßes. The conclusion drawn by some military critics,is that Germany is searing the day when she will no longer be able to maintain her present ■ force on all her lines.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19160107.2.63

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2663, 7 January 1916, Page 7

Word count
Tapeke kupu
735

DISPIRITED GERMANS Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2663, 7 January 1916, Page 7

DISPIRITED GERMANS Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2663, 7 January 1916, Page 7

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