GERMANY'S TROUBLES.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 September 1917, Page 5

GERMANY'S TROUBLES.

GERMANY'S WANING MORALE. TELL-TALE INCIDENTS. LONDON, Sept. 13. Though there have been no major operations on the British front, local fighting continues. The "Morning Post's" correspondent describes a typical affair arising out of a German attempt to retake Inverness Copse by means of storm troops. The Germdns are no longer able to rely on the ordinary line regiments to assault the British line. The necessity for storm troops is striking proof of the decadence of the army. The bulk of the Germans arc only fit to hold the multitude of concrete forts with which the Hindenburg Line and farms in Flanders arc studded. While picked storm troops the barrage, the infantry remain idle in their trenches and craters. The attack on Inverness Copse was carefully planned and rehearsed by Bavarian stormers and flame machine men. The ground had been accurately surveyed by means of aeroplane photographs. The 'Bavarian charge secured a few small trendies, but our ordinary troops, counter-attacking a few hours later, quickly flung them out. Such incidents convince our men that they arc more than a match for the best of GerI many's infantry. General Von Arnim is industriously training the fourth army, opposite , Ypres, in new open warfare, which has developed from the shell-hole system of defence. The Germans are being accustomed to live on the naked battle field with only a strip of canvas cloth across a shell-hole to screen them from aerial observation.