In the West.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 12 May 1916, Page 5

In the West.

i MORE ABOUT THE ANZACS, j PRUSSIANS CALLED THEM THE “SCUM OF THE EAHTH.” GERMAN ATTACK REPULSED. [Unitiou Pans* Association. j (Kcceived 8.10 a.m.) London, May 11. Though London is accustomed to the Anzacs, it is a novelty to see them with full kit fresh from the trenches and with mud caking their putties. Some of them arrive at Victoria station almost daily. They are delighted at the change from Gallipoli to France, which is like home. The fighting is a picnic compared with Gallipoli. They are delighted with the excellent organisation, especially of the commissariat, daily receiving bread, water, and bully beef. The Prussians recently, after hoisting boards calling the Anzacs “the scum of the earth,” attacked their trenches, but they were driven back, to the evident satisfaction of the Saxons, who replaced the Prussians and hoisted a board on which was written: “The scum of the earth have beaten the Prussians.”

The Anzacs are very proud of their splendid guns. The Germans attempted to attack tbeir right, but the guns immediately got the range and battered the German trenches, preventing an infantry attack. The German signals for the ambulance proved that the guns had done good work, and the Anzacs cheered every signal. The German shell-fire is heavier than the Turks’, but the Anzacs declare that France was hitherto a comparative rest cure, as they were not exposed every minute of the day and night, either on or off duty, to shells and snipers. The Anzacs tell the story of a ploughman with white horses. They believed the ploughman to be a spy, as he ploughed on ground where the Germans ought to have shelled, so the Anzacs went out at night and painted the horses red and brown, LIQUID FIRE TURNED ON THE enem(V. v DREADFUL DEATH SHRIEKS. (Received 9.30 a.m.) Parik, May 11. fhxrihg the fighting at Verdun, the Fr&hch discovered outside a German trench a vat of liquid ready for use as a spray of liquid fire. They’promptly turned the apparatus on the German trenches. Rod and green flame shot up like a fiery serpent, spread fanlike, and enveloped thirty Germans who were sheltering in a barrier. An officer relates that he will not forget the piercing shieks of the enemy as they were caught in a wave of their own flame, and being unable to fly they fell back blinded and dying.

OFFICIAL REPORTS. WARM ARTILLERY WORK. i ■ AEROPLANES BOMB RAILWAYS. The High Commissioner reports:— London, May 11 (3 p.m.) In the Champagne, our destructive fire demolished a German trench to a length of 100 metres in the neighborhood of Tahure. On the left bank of the Meuse, artillery fighting has been rather active in the region of Avocourt woods. On the right bank, a German attack at 2 a.m. on our positions west of Lake Vaux was repulsed with the bayonet and grenades. During the night four of our bombarding aeroplanes dropped 26 shells on the stations at Damvillers, Etain, and a park near Foameix, where fire was noticed.

SIDELIGHTS CM T i" BATTLE OF V E R Li Li N. I Paris, May 10. Le Matin says that a revelation of the inner history of Verdun shows that the French were only aware on February 21 of the gravity of the situation, previous local German offent sives having puzzled the French and I hindered concentration. General Petain was only sent thither 1 after the battle bad been in progress 'several days. When the storm broke, 'only 60,000 men opposed 200,000. No railway had been constructed to Verdun, and therefore it was thought ' prudent to evacuate the right bank of ; the Meuse. i Then General Castlenau arrived, and ! on his own initiative reversed the de- | cision, and ordered General Petain to hold the Douaumont plateau at all !costs. On February 2-1, they transported | thence, in ten hours, a whole army corps from Bar-le-Duc, employing ! 4700 motors, the men going into action ( as they arrived.