ON THE YPRES FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 11 October 1917, Page 2

ON THE YPRES FRONT.

HOW THE GERMANS FARE

Letters written by German soldiers on the Ypres front have been captured by the British. They show the conditions under which the enemy lives. One soldier '-rote: "We have the same filth and drill until we are crazy. Every morning I have a painter's breakfast. You know what that is, surely. It is a cigarette and coffee." A German corporal of the 29th Ma-chine-gun Marksman Detachment wrote ir. an unposted letter: "Matters have come to such a pass that our artillery moves forward in the night and lets loose some thousands of gas shells and retires before the dawn." Prisoners from the region of St. Julien made a number of interesting statements about the completeness of the British barrage. No food, water, or munitions, they said, reached the front line for three days, owing to our fire on the reads. The barrage prior to the attack absolutely prevented the Germans from manning their trenches and- they had to remain in their dugouts, where our men'found them. Four non-commissioned officers of the(Lehr Regiment, who had served from the beginning of the war, have admitted that the British bombardment before and during the attack was the worst they had ever had to endure. While the majority of the prisoners are still extremely bitter against their own gunners, for not giving them better support, many of them realise that it was not duo to lack of desire but to opposition which which they could not overcome. The experier.ee of the crew of the seventh battery of one field artillery regiment, which was sent up to take over four 77's near St. Julien on the Sunday night before the attack, is worth noting. They found all the ammunition buried in the earth and our shells dropping all round the gun pits They took over in some concrete dug-, out?, where our infantry found them,' and the battery in question was un-

! a-ble to fire a single shed from the time the crew reached the position until they and their guns were captured. The quality of the fare serVed to the German troops at present is shown by the following scale of rations of one battalion in. the Sixth Bavarian Reserve Regiment; Breakfast, coffee and dry bread; midday, one litre of soup with boiled or cold tinned meat, no potatoes and no vegetables; evening, bread and cheese, or bread and butter, or bread and jam. They also have a drink of brandy now and then. The bread was of poor quality. The meat was served in generous slices. The same fare' was served in the front line trenches when it was possible to b: ing it up, save that additional quanti.y of cheese was substituted for the soup. The men, received two cigarettes and two cigars daily and about 25 grammes of tobacco a month. A captured officer of the 21st .Division thought our men more cheerful and '•' wide-awako" than the German troops, who are "now very tired of the enthusiasm that they had even a the war," and who have by no means year ago.' ;