THE GERMAN FAILURE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 704, 16 September 1914, Page 5

THE GERMAN FAILURE.

BROW-BEATEN PRIVATES. BULLIED BY OFFICERS. CANNOT FACE BAYONETS. Received this day, 12.50 a.m. Mr London, Tuesday. Mr Phillip Gibbs, after a tour of the battlefields and many interviews with prisoners, states the chief cause of failure is that the German private now realises his officers' utter indifferece to the lives of the men. He beard brutal orders to spill blood like water so long as those who follow may wade to the destined goal. This policy has recoiled upon the authors. Even when captured the officers display an amazing lack oE comaraderie. They protest violently against sitting in the same waggons with the men and refuse to eat with them and still endeavour to bully. German privates often surrendered gladly in order to escape intolerable suffering. In some cases the Uhlans' haverBacks were filled with grass, which was their only food. When they surrendered they begged piteously for food. The failure to reach f aris was a demoralising blow and proof that the plans of the headquarters' staff had completely miscarried. All these things put the panic of fear into their hearts. The Germans were unable to withstand bayonet charge and made a miserable resistance against the Zouaves in such villages as Bragy and Penchard, unless protected by mitrailleuse. At Samtremy and Veerton one French regiment, with bayonets, routed four regiments with terrible slaughter. The Germans lost nerve and fled from the trenches screaming, and the majority were stabbed in the back as they fled. The whole retreat is more terrible than Luleburgas. Long continued artillery duels paved the way for charges at night. During the first days of the battle the French invariably retired slightly from the advanced position when Germans reoccupied it. The reoccupied French gunners dislodged them in the morning as they knew the exact range for the shells.

j The French infantry often rebelled against the weary waiting in the tren- | cnee, and when tte order to advance ( was given there was no attempt to move stealthily. Frequently the charging line vcas severely torn by mitrailleuse fire. The effect of the bayonet charges was overpowering. The long, sharp pointed French bayonets were fearful weapons in the German eyes compared wherewith the German knife bayonets wer3 toys. German casualties reached an enormous figure, but the French losses l were very heavy. \ Since the Germans retreated 7000 ' French wounded passed daily through j Orleans slone\ Paris ia one vast hos- ! pita], and the hospitals in every town in Centra] and Southern Franca are . overcrowded by maimed and crippled men, ,