"THE GRAVE."

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 270, 27 April 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

"THE GRAVE."

A GERMAN SOLDIER'S IDEA OF THE SOMME.

(Iu "A Neutral's" message from Cologno dealing with the situation in Germany, publ.shod in "The Daily Mail" recently, it was stated that the Sommo front was known in Germany "The Grave." The following s a translation of an article recently published in that well-known German periodical, the "Leipzig Illustrated Gazette" (11lustrite Zcitung) under the heading "The Grave on the Sonune.")

Toot-toot-toot! "Hostilo aeroplanes! Tako cover!

. . . That is what tho signal means. Tho British airman is hying very low, not moro than a hundred yards high. 1 can hear the whirr of l| s propellers quito distinctly. In the trenches the ear soon learns to tell the Englishman by tho sound of his machine. Thie fellow is an artillery observer. Since dawn ho has lie en over our positions, sending back his signals, which wo can hear quite clearly. Now he has caught sight of something again; already 1 can detect tho rushing flight of shells approaching from the distance. Wo know the sound well enough. . . . they must bo 11 in. shells at least. The earth trembles and a mighty pilar of mud sprngs aloft from where tho shell lias fallen, leaving a gigantic crater. "Hostile aeroplanes! Tako cover!" Tho word is passed down the trench from man to man. But there is no cover. A simple, very shallow trench is cur solo defence. I have managed to serapo myself a hole in tho parapet, and in this way I can at least sit down, with tho pack of a dead comrade as a tieat.

I wonder if the 'airman has found us out already . The trench is quite new, and it was dug with every possible precaution. The English seem to have plenty of ammunition again to-day, so everything that looks like a trench, where our brave lads are gallantly holding out, is to bo smashed and ploughed up by tho British Heavies. The battalion on ono side of us is catching it now. Tho sun is uncommonly hot to-day and wo are all suffering from thirst. I don't know why I am so thirsty, as I have just finished ono water-bottle. 1 wonder if it is the em el lof earth and of decaying corpses. A gentlo breeze is blowing across to us from the enemy. It is a gas wind all right. 1 wonder whether I ought to place another gas sentry. I feel so unsettled to-day, yet this is but a day like the rest; wo have had tire sort of thing for ten days past. But gas 19 not much used here : tho fighting sways too much to and fro. Besides, a gas attack doesn't worry us any longer—these aro stalo tricks.

I don't care so much for tho gas shells through which wo nad to pass when we camo up to take ovor tho line. They make an odd sound wnen tlioy burst but thoir splinters don't do so much harm. I remember how we stumbled from shell hole to shell-holo until wo reached the front lino amid a thunderous cascade of howling, rushing, bursting shells. .

I wonder how long we shall be here. Our orders are to hold tho line at all costs. If only 1 wero not so thirsty. It can only come from tho penetrating odour of dead bodies, lor they lio in heap. l . For days the smell has haunted me; my food tastes of it; that is why I hardly eat at a 1 now It is the same with drinking, but you l can't do without water. I think I'll just get my 6oconcl water-bottle . . . but there is the humming of propellers again, ana this time the Englishman is coming nearer. On our left he makes a circle in tho air, then his monotonous toottoot resounds, and almost at once the snells como rushing over, much nearer to us now. Earth and stool are Hung far and wido

I press myself close up against the parapet. Keep still, everybody, so that ho doesn't find us out. He comes nearer and nearer . . . now he is over us. Then ho seems to start in surpnso and ho corkscrews down so low that you would think you could touch him. Very cautiously I peep out under my steel helmet; tnen a wild rage seizes me. i spring up and seize the rifle of the man by my side to shoot tho intruder down. But ho has already turned lib macliino gun on tho trench. Tack-tack-tack-tack . . . ho sweeps tho trencn, but. i" vain. Then suddenly I hear a shell. "That is coming at you!" is my first thought. A big shell takes some seconds in itsi flight, and you have time to think things out. But there is no doubt this time. Tliis shell is meant for us. Though death is so close upon me I don t want to die; I fight against the thought, every muscle taut, every norvo .strained to preserve my life. Then tho heavy shell plunges into the sol't ground right in front of me, tho trench rocks, and I am buried under tons ot earth, as it seems. My l>ody is shaken as though I had jumped from a lofty window on to the pavement, and my senses begin to slip away from me. So it s all over . . . this is the end. Mechanically my right hand had gono up to protect my face, my steel helmet had fallen forward a little, my left hand was outstretched high abovo my head. Like lightning my whole life flashes through my mind like a film run across tho screen at express speed ... all is ever ... I am dead.

\ct I still hear tho shells bursting right and left, I can still hear tlie English airman sending back his signals. I hen crash.afier crush re-echoes in my trench, the parapet quakes, that w 'drum-fire" . . . Oh! if only the shellwould kill me again o that I might not hear them still!

Now they are falling closer first dull reports, then- loud explosions ihoso must bo gas shells. Now I hear tho voice-! of my men. The shelling has ceased. That means tliov nro attacking ... aha, my lads will givo it to them!

J'he ve:ees are louder. They have hegun to destroy my grave . . davlight intern in. What is that smell .'. gas or the dead? It mii'.st ho gas,'for it release i me from niv sufferings. The pressure is going . .at last 1 am |>.!s-. n <_i away peacefully, gent'y \|| | is that the filing of terror has lei t Ilie and tfia t all is still

....' '"'"deroiis crashr#; wake mo again. » ill the shells never leave me in pea.ee ,J Iho trench is narrow, and I am lying ! .t at lull length. Mv senses' are cerning back to me; I put out my hand and feci that somebody is lyng'oy my side (|U te quiet and contented." A \\ !< l ei ,,J s ' l:| l < i»S I open my eyes. • ncro :uii I- It is no bombardment, ;V ' lfl of the ambulance over V lO H ie!l-lio!es in the road. I feel as II every one of my ,-il.s were broken. wagon is badly hung and plun-es a.s it is driven swiftly forward, for I'Uglish shells dearly love the roads. Slowly I realise what h;w happened My men must nave seen mv hand projecting from the nia-s of earth under ' ' l: "l 1)0,, n buried l.v the big shell and forthwith .set to ,w>rk with pi -k and .shovel to dig me out. Mv steel helmet, thrust forward over mv fa-ee. had retained enough a r to keen m« alive for the few nnnut< H that the