DEADLY BRITISH NAVAL GUNS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 225, 2 March 1915, Page 6

DEADLY BRITISH NAVAL GUNS

A vivid description of the terrible effect of the British naval guns in the Belgian coast battle is given in a letter from a German soldier, who has returned home wounded, after service in one of the new German army- corps. The Times vouches for the authenticity of the letter, and the following in a translation of the portion referred to:— "At Gheluwe we went straight into battle by tile side of our Saxon comrades from Leipzig and Chemnitz (l!)th corps). Against us we had the English naval guns—a really devilish lire, on account of their accuracy "ami sure e."fect. One must admit that they are brave gunners. We were well hidden ; in a large farm house, a.nd the broad dining-room of the farmer am! his servants, with the entrance room, contained our whole company. Suddenly, like lightning out of a clear sky. a projectile of 150 nun. burst in, and exploded with a terrible noise, killing nineteen men and two officers, while thirty-one of my companions wore seriously wounded, while twenty who were slightly wounded lied in a panic with the rest of the company, pursued by accurate lire. In a moment, all oflicers and non-commission-ed ollicers were dead, prisoners or vanished. Three hours later I gathered together some thirty of our men, the miserable remnants of the caiiipany of 1 .";(>, all of them covered with filth'and f iu a most wretched condition, with no ammunition and half mad. The terrible storm of the ceaseless thunder of the guns lasted for three days ami nights. In order to reach Ypres we hail to pass through several villages and beautiful bits of country, where we counted at least SOO corpses—all of them comrades from Saxony, mowed <lo\Vn ami destroyed by the' accurate fire of British artillery. ' A terrible picture! We wanted to bury the poor bodies and started to do so, but we were forbidden. ■Vorwarts!' cried the commander, At last, on October 2!!. we arrived ■before Yprcs. In a real hell-ore battle, we lost from our regiment in killed, prisoners, and missing, 2,(100 men. Onlv a handful of us escaped with difficulty. We were almost ail of us deaf and distraught. I got two bullets in the shoulder and a third in the hip."