JOFFRE USED PINCER TACTICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 22 November 1915, Page 3

JOFFRE USED PINCER TACTICS.

DIRECTED BATTLE FROM SHOP BEHIND LINES. ON THE ALERT FOR 24 HOURS. PARIS, September 29. Of the two battles waged in. France, that in Champagne was far the fiercer and bigger. General Joffre 'himself conducted the advance, not a picturesque general on a white charger, but sitting attentively at a kitchen table in a wine shop behind the lines, while his aides, with telephone receivers attached to their ears, shoutsd the latest developments of the various attacking columns. A staff officer states' that General Joffre sat impassively, with eyes gued on a large map, making no comments, but giving concise orders in a quiet and unemotional voice.

For 24 hours General Joffre did not interrupt his close study of the situation, even for a sandwich. It was only when he was satisfied no more could be achieved that he- smilingly remarked:

"Well, that's done: now for a snack."

After a meal he slept for hours.

Meanwhile, a few miles distant, a scene worthy of Dante's Inferno was being enacted. In the dead of night, scores of thousands of blue-clad French infantry leaped out of their trenches at the Avor of command and dashed across the ground, turned up like a ploughed field by shells.

What the German saw in his shellbattered trench when the rockets' starlight illuminated the grim spectacle was the gleaming point on a fixed bayonet handled by an infuriated soldier wearing an anti-gas mask which gave him the appearance of a demon.

From a distance the battlefield formed a phantasmagorical spectacle. Lit by greenish lights, whose rays pierced the dense clouds of smoke and poison gases, the troops were seen swaying in a titanic struggle, wherein no. quarter was given or asked. All around flames leaped from concealed batteries, belching high explosives and shrapnel.

The victory which produced the reatest number of prisoners the Allies have yet gained in a single action was won in true Hindenbury fashion. The attacking torces were divided into three columns. While the rig'ht and left wings swept forward, the centi'al body regained quiescent until the advance on the flanks began to converge and act as powerful pincers. Then the centre delivered the last blow, netting regiment after regiment. One of the most terrible features of the battle was the numper of German artillerymen driven mad by the terrific cannonade.

The French y.v.ounded brought to Paris say that during the advance they came upon groups huddled around their guns, whicti they made no effort to serve. Some were dumb. The teeth of others chattered, while still others screamed wildly.

"These poor wretches," said one] soldier, "were quite harmless, gone stark mad."

The advance might have gone still further but for the fact that the Germans had constructed huge series of fortifications as the second defence, which the French guns had not played upon A study of the map, however, shows it* was a distinct artillery victory for the French. . They literally blasted four kilometres. Between the German first and second lines so utter was the destruction that even positions protected by converging gun-fire were carried without extraordinary effort. However strong the second network of German defences the French are prepared to employ the necessary weight of metal to flatten them out as they did the first line. This, in fact, is what is now going on in the Champagne, but it is probable some time must elapse before the positions can be stormed.

A few miles further east, the Crown Prince failed in what was described here as a dynastic offensive, designed to impress the German Empire with the Ho'henzollern military qualities. He threw 100,000 men against strongly defended trenches along the wild Argonne hills, and although for a time his densely-formed battalions rushed some advanced posts, the French artillery, which had been battering his new lines, gained the upper hand, and the infantry were able to drive the German legions back. The action has created a firm impression that the great munition efforts of the Allies, in the past summer have finally given them the superiority necessary to conduct the general offensive.