General

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 91, 20 April 1915, Page 8

General

'details of neuve chapelle. Unitkd Pekjss Association. London, April IS. ■ Details of the Xenve Chapelle hattie emphasise the terrible character o! the British artillery tire. The ground quaked as if smitten by a titan's hammer. Dense smoke hung over tin- German trenches, and sickening lyddite fumes were wafted back over the British trenches. The Germans were totally oblivions of the British intention to attack, and bodies of the enemy were blown into fragments, the upper half of a German officer's body being blown into one of our trenches. Germans found alive nearer the trenches weve baji demented, surrounded by a welter ot dead and dying.

Two German officers gallantly worked a machine-gun until they were bayoneted. Xenve Chapelle looked as if it bad been struck by an earthquake, streets being thrown out of alignment, and the scene being one of utter chaos. At Xenve Chapelle the Middlesex regiment suffered terribly in the entanglements. From their startingpoint tbev left a deep lane of dead and dying 120 yards long. Three times thy trid to burst through, their bands being cut and torn by the barbed wire. Eventually they bad to lie down among the dead until the artillery cleared the entanglements. Th Worcester* had a fine scrap in the orchards with bayonets. They charged the Germans up and down the muddy fields like terriers alter rats. I The German counter-attack was a

ghastly business, being ill-timed and ill-prepared. The Bavarians advanced in column against the whose twenty-one machine guns opened five The column was advancing shortting one moment, and the next they lay writhing in a convulsed heap of bodies, the wounded seeking cover behind the ramparts of the dead. Our shells ploughed tip a cemetery, and broken coffins and long-buried remains were scattered on the surface. the bodies of the slaughtered Germans lying athwart the tombs. At points where entanglements held up our advance the German machine-guns dealt out devastation. The first lines of the Gharwalis wore withered by a fearful blast of lire. On their left the second battalion of Lcicosters got through, using hand grenades; they swept along the German trendies and effected a junction with the marooned Gharwalis, whose first line of officers were nearly all killed. The Scottish Rifles lived up to fmcknow and Spion Kop traditions, und fought with desperate valor. They lost all their officers but one, who. with 150, were all that answered the battalion roll call. ENEMY CONFIDENCE DIMINISHING. London, April 19. "Eye-witness" says the Germans at St. -.Hubert.oll Thursday for some reason displayed the white flag, and lowered it on finding no desire on the part of our troops to communicate. A battalion accounted for fifteen German snipers in two days. According to a deserter, the enemy's bread ration consists of one loaf daily amongst four.

Letters received by German soldiers from relatives are increasingly pessimistic. They state that the officers behave with studied bruculeitce. This is borne out by the use of the cat o' nine tails, which is well established. One of tho captured Nenve Chapellc prisoners stated that twenty men were digging trenches when the subaltern in charge suddenly produced a revolver and declared he would blowout the brains of the first idle man lie saw. In consequence of a general mistrust the men do not exchange grievances for fear their grumbling will reach the ears- of their seniors. Outward forms of discipline are unreliable. In the trenches when an officer p.isses the men must spring to attention and remain at the "shoulder arms" for possibly a quarter of an hour.

Tile German confidence has diminished, but is only destroyable by defeat, which can neither be explained nor hidden. Such a defeat might possibly have an immediate 4 , and overwhelming effect on the whole nation that would be decisive. GERMANY'S EFFORTS USELESS. London, April 19. Renter reports that despite Germany's efforts the Austro-ltalian negotiations have failed. A FRONTIER INCIDENT. Paris, April 19. A lieutenant and his platoon crossed the frontier at Valines Abbia on Friday. The lieutenant fired his revolver, wounding a sergeant of the Alpine troops when ordered to withdraw. The Italians repulsed the Austrians with the bayonet, wounding and making prisoners of the lieutenant and I three Austrians.