France & Flanders

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 5 January 1915, Page 5

France & Flanders

'■INTO HELL'S GATES." FIXE BRITISH EQUIPMENT. LA BASSEE A STIFF PROBLEM. Times and Sydney Sua Serving. London, January 3. Ail oye-wvinesß at the front says that everything possible has been done to mitigate the rigours of active service in wintry conditions'. The troops are fed a 9 110 army is; the field lias ever'been fed before. They have received every imaginable kind of garment- from public and private source-.;, and want for nothing that it is possible to give them. Tliey are in good heart. There is a dearth of mouth-organs, and any instruments for the solo accompaniment of songs in the evenings, when the men are collected in burrows and dug-outs behind tin; firing line, would be a god-send. Pies, plum puddings, chocolate, tobacco

and other luxuries are to be seen at every regimental headquarters. Over eighty tons of puddings were transported in two days. The men suffer most from tiit ir feet swelling from standing in mud and water.

A German on the Yser says: "We have done all that men could do. We have attacked day and night, hurled ourselves into hell's gates, sometimes makinr, j-rt-j;ress, or.t often beaten back, and nhvays defied by the hidden English, who are well armed, fed and clothed. Sometimes we thought we had beaten them. The silent voices of our dead tell the truth that they have fought and died in vain."

Germans talking to men in the British trendies said: "The Kaiser is no damn good, but the Russians arc completely wiped out, and tin; army is coming west to scatter the Allies." Some had printed postcards saying: "We have won a great victory over the English, but 80,000 men are reinforcing them. These are the last British army. After that the war will be over.

CIVILIANS SLAUGHTERED. WOMEX AND GIRLS SHOT. MORE ATROCITIES REPORTED. Received 4, 7.15 p.m. Havre, January 4. The Belgian Commission's report on Xamur province states that 3000 were massacred out of a population of 300,000. There were 700 victims at 'Dinant alone, including 70 women and 31 children under 15 years.

THE KAISER'S CRIME. HIS ACKNOWLEDGMENT WILL BE FORCED, PROSPECTS AND PROPHECIES. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 4, 6.40 p.m. London, January 4. In response to the French Press, which sought opinions on the prospects of 1 !'ls, General Duchesne said: "I am certain that next spring will see a general offensive that will for ever drive the barbarians far away." The Paris Municipal Council said: "We hope the Kaiser's good old god will keep him aliva and in good health long enough to see tlie greatness of his erimc."

GERMANS' IIAVORITE TRICKS. MASQUERADING AND SPYING. ' Received p.m. Paris, January 4. There are reports that the Germans liave secured the Belgian military identification papers in Brussels, and German officers and men are using them, to enable them to masquerade in France, and possibly in England, as Belgians.

GARIBALDI'S FUNERAL. Paris, January S. Bruno Garibaldi had an imposing funeral with Lieutenant Trombetta, who was killed beside him. General Gourand, in an address at the graveside, paid a high tribute to Bruno Garibaldi, and the Garibaldian corps for capturing trenches on their first day in the firing line. London, January 3. A Paris message says that the taking of La Bassee, where two German army corps are quartered, surrounded by exceptionally strong earthworks, is regarded as essential for any concrete forward move, in order to protect the communications. The Allies forces look upon it as one of the hardest problems they have to solve. Amsterdam, January 3. Cardinal Mercier, in a pastoral letter, says the occupied provinces are still unconquered jind the Belgians owe allegiance to King Albert only, but he appeals to citizens not to commit hostile acts.

The export of bread ancl poultry is prohibited. The military authorities have power to permit the export of limited quantities of bread destined for the population in the vicinity of the frontier if they are unable to obtain supplies.

WHOOPING couon. Never neglect Whooping Cough, for children are often p?rmar,.-utly injured by the awful straining of the cough. ' r l!?rn is no danger whatever from whooping .'ougli when (.'hamlxilain's Gmigli Remedy is freely give:;. It should be given at once, repeating die dose frequently. It liquifies the lough mucus, makes it easy to expectorate, keeps the cough loose and counteracts any tendency towards pneumonia. Sold by all chemists and storekeepers.

NIGHT ATTACK ON METZ,

BY BRITISH (AND FRENCH AEROPLANES. Received 5, 1.25 a.m. Dunkirk, January 4. Fo:;r French and two British participated in the aeroplane night attack on Metz. Considerable damage was done to various military positions.

FRENCH OFFICIAL REPORT. Paris, January 3. A communique states: "We maintained all the new positions between the sea and the Lys. The enemy's sole activity was a violent bombardment at Zonnebeke. We progressed 500 metres at Luboiselle. Our artillery demolished German works on the Nouvain plateau. We progressed 300 metres at Perthes-les-llurdlus and inflicted heavy losses on the Germans at Beau Sejour. We progressed in the Le Bouchet wood near Troyon, also in the Lc Petre wood, Wc captured a trench on the Celles-sur* Plains near St. Die. We bombarded a German train at Altkirch and damaged the railway south-west of Altkirch. The relaxation of our offensive is attributable to heavy rains soaking the soil and making operations everywhere almost •mpossible. There have been heavy artillery engagements in many parts of the front. Received 4, 5.40 p.m. Paris, January 4. Official: The weather is bad. The situation is unchanged along the whole front.

PILES OP GERMAN DEAD. One of tlu; features of this war ig'the unprecedented way in which the German officers sacrifice, the lives of their devoted troops to capture comparatively unimportant positions. Future historians will seek in vain for the results of attacks which cost thousands of lives. The German General Staff has thrown away an enormous number of lives in attacks which are almost invariably repulsed. Here is the story of a fierce combat, merely one of many, which took place between French and German troops in the Argonne. The story was related by a wounded Frencii officer who took part in it:—

'Tour German columns, or about l.",000 men, charged us with the bayonet. A terrible fusillade broke out all along our line. We were supported by five machine-gun sections. It wa3 splendid, but terrible, to see the havoc tha# tliev wrought. The machine-guns were firing ;it the rate of GOO shots a minute, and were soon white-hot, yet the Germans continued their advance. We no longer troubled to aim, but fired into the thick of them, vet I am sure that each bullet of ours found its billet. And still they advanced. We had received orders to hold our position at any cost, and we did so. We would strike one blow with our bayonets, then reload and fire, then get to bayonet werk again. And so it went on for five hours. Suddenly we heard shells whistling over our heads. We recognised the sound. It was our own guns that were coming into action. This was too much for the enemy, who broke and fled. "When we looked over our trenches a horrible sight met our eyes. Heaps of German dead were piled up in front. They had come right up to the parapet of our trenches, and many of them lay there dead, with the points of their bayonets fixed in the parapet. Along a front of almost a kilometre, and for 400 yards in front of our trenches, you could not have placed your foot without stepping on wounded or on dead. In certain spots the bodies were piled up sev. eral feet high. In this engagement the German casualties must have been at least 10,000."

GERMANY'S TERRIBLE LOSSES ON THE AISNE. From German sources it is now revealed that the Germans sustained some very heavy losses druing the battle of the Aisne. A young German soldier, writing from Nouvron, in France, to his mother in Berlin, has a terrible story to tell of the slaughter in the German army. The letter was taken to Sweden to avoid the German censor. The writer, referring to the battle of the. Aisnc—he was writing on 22nd September—says:— "We are at present in the tenth day of battle with the Frenchmen, and have suffered frightful losses. Of my earlier 4th Company there were yesterday still 39 men remaining, and yet we wero 250 men when we moved out. Our army corps, owing to its enormous losses and sickness —the result of the eternal rainy weather—is to be withdrawn from the lighting line. This will be splendid, because we shall then, possibly for some time, not have to fight. It is also inhuman what we have to do and suffer. Last Sunday we made a storming attackon the French position. It was simply a blood bath. French as well as German corpses lay in heaps upon one another. Should I ever return I shall always remember for the rest of my life, and with terror, those days. Fancy! Of our battalion there are only four officers left, and of 1200 men only about 370 remaining. And yet we are only a reserve battalion, consisting entirely of married reservists and Landwehr, which should rather have been taken care of. How, then, must the active troops of the line have fared?"

When you see a man—sin iling lazily through the fragrant light-blue smoke-rin-rs from the seasoned briar between his teeth—that's GOLDEN EAGLE comfort. The slight Imljrc in his vest peeked k-iokes* nit s-;(.DEX EAGLE i'LCU. 100 get oocl a:«o in tins, is When careful Scotsmen pin their faith to one of tobacco, it's surelv something good. So it is. Test BONNrE DPON t(, d:iy lii.d see if it's r.ct aright.