BOOKS OF TOE DAY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2805, 24 June 1916, Page 6

BOOKS OF TOE DAY

''PROM VERDUN TO THE VOSG£S," •'rVer3un;t(> tlie Vogges;. Impressions of tlio AVar oil tho Portress frontier of Franco," is the title of a handsomely produced {volume "written by Mr.. Gerald Campbell, and published by Edward ■Arnold, London. The author was commissioned by the "Times" in September, 1914, to go to France as its representative, and claluis to lmve had a more extensive and more intimate acquaintance with the fighting on i the long section of the French fvoiit between Verdun and Belfort than any' other war correspondent. With 'the special features of the stupeudoue-con-■ flict which, for so many months; raged between tho lower Alsatian border and Verdun, the British, and' certainly the Hew Zealand public, has.never been so sufficiently well acquainted as the importance of this particular phase of tlie : conflict deserved. We were all 60 Tbusily.■watching the course of events' in' Belgium, and, later, on tho Marue, and so on;to the superb British defiance' of >the. enemy in tho Ypres region, that what had taken place along the southern por--,tion of the French line had but ecajity. public recognition, of its value -in * the ■ general plan of the Franco-British campaign. ; . The story which Mr. Campbell now. tells -is one of- tile highest historical .value. In his pages we read-of the splendid earlier successes of the French in Alsace and tho Vosges Tegion,..and of their superb gallantry in the battle of the . Grand Couroime, a battle, in- its own-way,-, almost as. important as that of ;the Marne. In tli6 latter, tho Germans were weary, and .tired, buf in tho cattle in the yosges. tlioir-battalions entered the struggle fresh and unexhausted —and. for every Frenchman' there were seven.to ten of the Huns. The strain ■upon .our. gallant Allies was- terrific, but onslaught failed, and both Belfort. and Verdun 'were 'eaved. Mr. .Campbell saye:

; Tsio men ate and slept where, they could rSi- B ro j'nd, where. they had'fought. JJay after day and Sour after-hour the on - Brilliant -bayonet marges and denperate struggles, hand-to-; '-Sf, b ? d y-t«-b°dy,. : followed each other with, liaraly a moment's break. ■o'Qt the French Boldiers never flinoh6a,- outnumbered and outwei&hted as " Th ? y wero not IL ft ory # or recognition,- but lor, Franco 5?, d tne freodom of the world. And they • Tr ? r J i ' S l *. they hod failed . . ; } the whole defence of France would lave broken down. But they did fl ot fail. Eavetl SaV °' ' all< * France was

i. * ain from Mr.' Camp- .? '7°4 u cnt panegjTic upon the noble part played in the. earlier .stages of the great war drama of the Western front by the people of Nancy, but space-limits iorbid. I must,, however, find room for preference to the evidence affwded in ■Air. Campbell a fascinating pages of the fact that Huiij brutality—nay, thapositive bestiality of- the Boches—\va3 not conkMd to Belgium and the cities of north-eastern France; The story of Ger■bevilLers- proves that no matter where the Huns have' been in France, they , ve Piwed themselves the same heartless, lustful savages, men—to give the appellation far too honourable for them—who deliberately bring themselves, down to v the level of '■ ba rb ariaae. The chapter liead--5 .; Martyred. Town";'contaihs details altogether too horrible to quote in the columns of a,public - journal; '■ The ?'iPi?. -4 things—these truly awi ■ the'actual-occurrehcei of ;which Mr. Campbell-pledges his honour, and for quotes : chapter -and date, ,liis, charges by. ■unassailable evidence, .-were Bavarians,. men commanded by -that same' Archduke Ruprecht whom the Chief Assassin has bocii ploasc-d to. make the recipient of special' Imperial: "honours'.'" - "Surely' "if there be a God in Heaven, if Divine punishment is, as .it should be, a logical concomitant of Divine reward, the studied, deliberate inhumanity of the Ger. mans, not committed in the murderous insanity:of strenuous combat, bnt with premeditated;. cold-blooded intention, shrill not go;without its due reward! ,of rth'e- most. interesting • of Mr. Campbell's chapters is 'that entitled "The boixanto Qninze," in which he deals with' the enormous importance of the part played in the war by the famous French ,75's, those splendid guns which the Germans have learnt, with good reason, to dread more than any other weapon yet brought into use against them. Mr. Campbell says:

To every French' civilian, and. to ©very French soldier, no matter to "what arm of wlo service he belongs, tho Souante Quinze fa the. real hero of tho war. And in* one sense they are not far wrong. For without it not the most splendid courage and most dashing; exploits of, the chas-s<3uis-alpins, cluasseurs-a-picd, and all tho splendid French and African regiments of t£pir armies could have held out against German attack, much leas have rolled it;back. . . . Before they knew, by actual experience what tho Boixante-Quinze could co; the Germans nicknamed it "the cigar, holder. I\oyr it has become (it -was -what they called it in Lorraine when w© were there) a barbarous..and. engmo the-French artillerymen the black doTil6." Learn a lesson from the German gunner. Whereas he oomplains/of,//barbarous engines" ' and' ■Jblack devils, the French soldier greets •hisjarious projectiles as la groese or la petite jngimite,; or - slow-coach,", "the whist-ler, -'or. . the/train,"'jusfrasour own jmen talk of Black Marias'-and Jack Johnsons. The , contrast is significant. th ® Germans ,/ear tho than the French fear Merence in the mental attitude is well founded, hardly anything could.■augur better for our eventual suecGss.yAnd it is. Tho ideal of Krupp, as is the Kolossal. But > the Frenchman is tho better gunner. HenotonJyhaslnthefioiiante-Quinzda finer weapon, with better regulated fuses, but he is -incomparably quicker, in serving it and has a disconcerting wa;y in hot ac' tions of placing his battery in position < m . moredibly.. short -space, of time), appointed number of rounds of spreading or diroct fir©,'and then limber.and departing to fresh woods and pastipes now before the Germans have discovered where ho Is.

Every chapter in Mr.. admirable, book seems to contain some information which comes new to the ordinary newspaper student of tho war A« I hare sair at the outset, it is possessed ot a.'special valuo and interest, in that it deals very largely, and in detail, with phases, of tho great struggle tho importanco of which u too often: under-rated. 'Thoibook contains a number of excellent illustrations: of . scenes- near - and on tho fighting front, portraits of French generals and other notables,. (New Zealand price,' 12s. 6d.)