WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 154, 5 December 1914, Page 6

WAR NOTES.

WHY ANTWERP FELL. The defences of Antwerp, especially regarding the arrangement of the outer forts, were not planned to cope- with audi artillery as the Germans used, says the London Times. The early days of the siege showed that the outer forts were helpless against modern great ignr:.-;. The weight of the attack was primarily directed against Forts Wael beni suJ Wavre St. Catherine. These v.\;v defended with conspicuous gallantry. Many incident.! were truly heroic in a defence which, from the first, was absolutely hopeless. When these forts had fallen, the defence was concentrated on the line of the Rivt-r Nethc. With anything like ■ approximately equivalent :arf;illery the river might have been held indefinitely, even though the biggest | German howitzers could have bombarded the city itself without crossing the | river. The Belgians had not equivalent | artillery. The experiences of the Bel--1 gain troops occupying those trenches were terrible. The British Marines on I their arrival, were sent to relive the j Belgians and occupy the same trenches, [ and they bad to submit to the same' experience. Nevertheless, both British and Belgians showed great pluck, and, when a chance came to use their rifles, beat back repeated attempts of the Germans to cross the river oil the nights of October 5 and 0. Neither Belgians nc-r British need had any feeling .but pride iii the courage Ir. which a desjperats and forlorn hope was clung to. [ Many of the Belgian troops defending | the city hud been almost literally continuously under fire near Nafnur. The British, troops were placed suddenly in a most trying situation. Both failed only because their task was beyond human capacity. Both deserve nothing but honor and admiration. j OUR DAILY BItEAD. The London correspondent of a German paper announces that London is on the verge of starvation, his own diet being reduced to "bread and rancid dripping." "There's a languor in this alien air; We are reduced, in fact, to famine fare; Mine, I may nay, i 3 dripping based on bread (Ugh!) and I gather I shall soon be dead. It is t!'.e same all over, East or AVest; Hungry, each hollow just below the chest. Daily, I'm told, they rake the very dust, Hoping in vain to come across a crust. And v;hen our God-born Wilhclm brings his Huns Here, ho will find a few old skeletons." finch is the tale a Teuton lady writ. Now. then' I ask, does London look so , . fit? This is the reason mainly, I surmise— Wc are fed up, of course, with German Lies. — l "Punch,"