VIVID WAR PICTURE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1456, 7 October 1915, Page 2

VIVID WAR PICTURE.

THE BATTLEFIELD OF LOOS.

London, Oct. 5

A vivid picture of the Loos battlefield is given by Mr Philip Gibbs in the Chronicle. He writes: “I went to-day to the centre of the great battlefield where heavy fighting is still going on. I stood near the famous Loos redoubt. A little distance away, looming grim and gaunt against the grey sky, rose the tali steel columns of the mining works. I can hardly put into words a picture of the scenes through which I passed, and the dreadful aspect of the battlefields upon which the sun shone with splashes of light through the storm clouds and turmoil of war. In the background thousands ot men were moving in a steady column forward and backward in the queM tangled way they do in battle,

“Vast convoys of transports choked the roads with trains. Motors and ambulances were packed with wounded men and infantry plodded through the slush and slime. The heroes of battle passed and repassed in dense masses and small battalions, Regions ot tall lads who a few months ago marched in smart trim down English lanes trudged under the burden of heavy packs, their smartness soiled by war but splendid because of the hardiness ot their endurance.

It is a long walk through the narrow trenches towards Loos Redoubt and the smell of death is in the narrow winding ways. A soldier killed at the entrance of the way knelt with head bent as though in prayer. Soon the roar ot the guns was incessant and very close.

“Passing over the parapets, I •saw the whole panorama of the battleground. It was but an ugly and naked plain rising to Hulluch, and Hoisrie on the north, falling to Loos on the east, and rising again to hill 70. “I saw two men clad in khaki carrying a German gas cylinder, and whistling as they passed. The German trenches were a minute’s run across the open ground. The dead were still heaped about them a mass of horror. “Down below, in the town of Loos they were digging out the dead from deep cellars, and removing them for burial, and piling up German helmets, letters, weapons and a great store of booty. Germany Filled, with Foreboding, Our booty included a big bronze bell used in the German trenches to signal the British attack, but best of all apart from the guns is the enormous mass ot documents taken in Loos and the trenches. They reveal the mentality of the German army and are very curious. An instructive letter was one by a German girl writing to her sweetheart and complaining that all the young manhood of the country had gone. The 1916 recruits were called to the colours and the 19x7 and 1918 were registered, so that every boy in the Fatherland was on the roll call. A sense of depression fills most of the documents and shows that half the German army is filled with foreboding. “ One warning must be written. We have made a successful advance, but there for the present it ends, and the people at Home will be bitterly disappointed if they expect to read of the capture of a town every time they sit down to breakfast. We achieved a magnificent success, but the way is still far to go before the end comes.”