A HORRIBLE' PICTURE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 252, 15 July 1915, Page 3

A HORRIBLE' PICTURE.

A sergeant with two arms missing, asked me to put a cigarette In his mouth. I met him at the Monte Dore Convalescent Hospital, Bournemouth. He had just como from Neuve Chapelle, which was recently the scene of an unprecedented artillery attack on th part of the British and French. On a front of two miles, guns were ma!ste)sd at distances of ten yardjgl Thes s Suns were trained on a certain, spot occupied by the enemy. At a signal the whole line opened fire. Said, my sergeant who had lost both arms: "I had a pair of field-glasses, and was able to see the effects of the bombardment on the German trenches. At first ther e was nothing but smolc, but when th e wind shifted I saw that the earth In front of the trenches was boiling like stew. You watched this stew for some time, and saw lumps of red, white and blu e boiling to the top, just lik G stuff in a pot. After a while I began to understand that the blue and red stuff was German men and horses and artillery being churned: into the earth and out again by the French Seventy-fives. When we got there we saw a big mash of leather, bones, bun wheels and military equipment. There was nothing alive in the first or second linjg of trenches. I doubt if a flea survived. We just boiled up men and horses with eight thousand shells. And, from the word 'fire,’ there wasn’t a shell that missed, th© spot. We got it too. One of our divisions advanced too far, and our gunners didn’t know it. Guess the rest. Wow ”

It is better to Interview these wounded soldiers than get your war information from highly-paid correspondents, Th e soldier gets a first-hand picture of th e . fight, while the correspondent is only able to let his woolly imagination run loose in some Belgianbeer bourse or hotel.