FROM THE FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 208, 13 May 1915, Page 3

FROM THE FRONT.

STORY OF A GREAT BATTLE. “Ten Waterloos a week,’- is how someone has described the fighting around Ypres. The name has grown so hackneyed that on e is inclined ot pass it on in print The battle lasted over a week, and will be recorded as the most bloody and momentous in history. It cost England 50,000 men out of 120,000 engaged. Prance and Belgium lost 70,000, the Germans 375,000 The American War has been called the most terrible war in history. Ypre s or Wipers, as the “Tommies” call it, beats everything “to a frazzle.” The exact details are only just leaking out. They are certainly not contained in Sir John French’s dispatches. The long lines of fact s are being fathered up bit by bit. Summarised, the British and French found tjhat their armies w l ere too thin to block the terrible German rush to Calais

‘poured in frantically upon the British Commander-in-chief. “We must have more then, sir. It te impossible to hold out!” Answered French “I can give you ray two sentries and my headuarters staff.” Disaster followed disaster The Royal Scots Fusiliers remained “at the outpost of hell” until they were cut off. The German artillery had found Sir Douglas Haig’s house. A shell exploded inside. He escaped by a miracle; nearly all staff officers were killed or Avounded

French rushed ihls motor car to the line of the First Division and found it in retreat Through hjs glasses he could see the close-locked, quadruple rank s of German infantrymen attacking everywhere. And everyAvhere the English were fighting, but Avithout method. They Avere in it to the last man —even the regimental cooks and rouseabouts. The officers of infantry and cavalry Avere firing with the men, their servants loading spare rifles behind them.

Tjhey .say French rislsdd his life 20 times that afternoon, as his car took him from one focus of trouble to another His aviators brought in neAvs of closed-packed German army corps lining the distant hills like SAvarms of ants; and farther away longer lines of grey serpents Avhich Avere still more German regiments coming to the slaughter. Addjed to tjhis Avas the news that the French supports Avere crumpling. Sir John French picked up the broken ranks of the First Division and threw it at the flank of a German attack. Avhich was proceeding on the reckless theory that the Britisjh were totally beaten. Miserable theory The German attack broke. The British took Gheluvelt, and held like bulldogs.

Somewhere along the line von Kluck made his mistake. Eitjher he followed too closely the machine>-made plan of the General Stag, or he underrated the enemy Sir John French struck. The Army of Paris struck; more important, the whole French line from Switzerland to Pari s pivoted on the Vosges and initiated a general advance This attack broke the Crown

Prince and flung von Kluck back to the verge of annihilation. No one will ever tell th e full story of this German retreat from Paris on September 7. That day a whole population of Prances fairest covered and ran or stood and. died. That day the transports of Avounded choked every back trail, the dead sprinkled every forest in Northern France. And this picture of th e Avoods between the Allies and the enemy is given by Sir John Frnch’s priA r ate secretary in some recent dispatches:'— “A Avood standing in soft, muddy clay, in which there are hundreds of pits several feet deep covered Avith dead vegetation, and heaped from end to end Avith German corpses, the majority of Avhom have lain there since November Thi s awful zone of dead lies between us and the enemy.”

A SUBMARINE’S LAMENT . There has been an outcry over a British yacht firing at a German submarine in the Irish Sea The enemy accuses us of not playing the game. Surely it is time someone told Admiral von Tirpitz to put his undersea fleet in cottonwool The “sub.” in question Avas out for the yacht’s destruction, and got sloshed. Latest news from the Channel proves that British master marines are resolved to ram the "sub.” instead of running away It looks as though th e German command of the mud is about to pass. TROOPS ARE OVER EAGER So far, very little news of the Australasian Expeditionary Force in Egypt reaches England With the opening of the Dardanelles and tjhe occupation of Constantinople by the Allies, we shall hear of the force being moved to France, The Canadians have already made their first bayonet charge All oversea contingents are allowed their brief hour in the limeligjht —Indians, Canadians, Bermudans, Irish, and South Africans An unemotional English cavalry officer told me recently that the arrival of oversea troops at the front is generally a source of anxiety to the generals in command There is an idea that, by making a bayonet charge, the fresh tropos hope to drive the Germans beyond the Rhine. This notion obsesses officers and men alike until their desire is granted.. It is Avell known that the Canadians Avere in open mutiny because they were kept in the trenches for a Avhole day without being asked to charge something. It is a noble impulse, but one that Joffre and French curse with all their might. It is the same with the Germans. Many crack regiments were annihilated to satisfy the Kaiser’s vanity. In fact, one may declare with truth that vanity has triumphed over strategy. Vanity impelled the Crown Prince to order that bis army should be first to enter Paris, to the detriment of von Klick and the collapse of the fonvard rush. British and German General Staffs have been set cursing over the public desire to see some popular regim’ent distinguish itsdlf. The whole. German plan of action was held up for three days to allow Wilhelm’s Brandenburgers to charge the British Grenadiers.

The liondon Scottish were almost decimated because the London Press j whooped for them to make at least one charge. They made it, and people have since asked whether the charge was really necssary. Of course, it wasn’t A single company of artillery could have done the work much better, and without any appreciable loss of life. A GERMAN OFFICER AS FUEL. A survivor from the Gneisenau told a gruesome yarn to his rescuers. When the Gneisenau was trying to escape from the British ships, although everything was done to increase her speed, the officers were not satisfied. First, their message s to the stokehold were imploring, then they became desperate, and, finally, threatening. An officer, went down and told them that they must get another two knots on to her speed at any cost; the stokers declared it impossible The officer threatened them with his revolver; they defied him; he fired wildly, and several of the stokers were wounded in a trice. The others overpowered him, smeared him with grease, and shoved him into the furnace. But evjen a greased German officer evidently failed to get the extra speed.