EMPTY GUNS FOR CHARGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 6, 22 January 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

EMPTY GUNS FOR CHARGE.

GERMAN SOLDIER PAYS CAPTAIN FORGOT ORDER TO LOAD.

An incident of t!; 0 war in Northern! France illustrating how implicitly the German soklicr.s obeys the command oi his superior officer is described in i\ letter from Michael Wojly, a German soldier, to his brother, Max W'.'ily. n> professional wrevller of New Y< :'k." Tlie Germans, according to this letter, dated October 12, were entrenched between two .small towns in Northern: riant- . One day the captain of the eompany in which Weily served gave Wie order to charge the enemy with fixed bayonets.

"Our captain forgot to odd the ci'ckt to load our rifles," Eakl the soldier in his letter, ''and. of course, no one Icatlcd his gun. We started on a charge, hut worc unable to fire at the Frenchmen, who withstood us. Our loss was terrible and we had to retire. Although the captain was altogether tc blame for the defeat, tliero was Eo murmuring in tlw ranks.'' Thn Kaiser, addressing soldiers in the field in the first week in October, according to Weily's Utter, the belief that the war would end within four \v<: eks. " Conditions in the- trenehe-," the letter continued, " are terrible. I would rathe:: - lie under continuous firo or march thirty kilometres a day than li ■ for twenty-four hours in a trench. If mv only had water it. would not '*' so had. but even t!ia r is impossible to get. We have money in our pocket l-.ut nothing remains to ho bought. Tho French townspeople are making money out of the German soldiers. I paid a mark for a small package of ma.Wi«« the other day which should have cwt one-.-ixth as much. " While on I .' looses have been very great T can say that the losses of tlio French have been greater. The Frcjidimen have cliarged us many times, nfld foi 150 yards in 'Vent of our trenches there are hundreds and hundreds <;f bodies of dead Frencbm n. There is a pile of 12") or mi re within twentyyards of the place where I am writlns' " ;.r."JJ